PLAY BALL: Cathedral Catholic shocks St. John Bosco in playoff action; the brackets
Catherdral Catholiic shocks St. John Bosco-Bellflower
The last team competition in the 2025-26 California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) continues play throughout the Golden State Wednesday after a terrific first day of regional diamond action on Tuesday.
The No. 1 baseball team in the nation to start the season, St. John Bosco-Bellflower, coming off a stirring Southern Section Division 1 title, was eliminated Tuesday by eighth seed Cathedral Catholic-San Diego 4-2 in a first-round Southern California regional.
Cathedral Catholic now plays fifth-seed La Mirada, another road victory with a 7-6 win over Liberty-Bakersfield.
The other first-round Division 1 game on Tuesday was yet another road victory, this one for Huntington Beach, a 10-3 winner over Patrick Henry-San Diego.
The lone SoCal D1 quarterfinal game pits Norco (28-5), ranked No. 9 nationally by MaxPreps against visiting Eastlake-Chula Vista (24-7) Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.
In Central Catholic’s win over St. John Bosco, the Dons struck for three runs in the fifth to key the win. Ty Daniels had two hits and two RBIs, including a double, while Will Blanton and Hunter Harrington added RBI singles. Winning pitcher Jose Partida went 5.1 innings, struck out four and allowed six hits.
SOCAL BRACKETS
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NORCAL PLAYOFFS
Host and top Division 1 seed De La Salle-Concord (23-4) continued to squeak out wins with a third one-run postseason victory out of four.
Winning pitcher Roman Bartosh allowed one earned run and four hits in six-innings plus with three strikeouts and no walks. Kaleo Jones earned the save and Ben Hayden was 3-for-3 with an RBI. Sam Lakey added an RBI single and freshman Brandon Manivong added a run-scoring double. St. Francis, the West Catholic Athletic League champions, had RBIs from Sione Tulua and Henry Dommer. The Lancers finished 25-5.
De La Salle will now host Valley Christian a 4-0 winner over Bullard-Fresno as the Warriors (21-9) recorded their third straight in the playoffs, this one combined by Rahul Patel and Alex Kim on a three-hitter. First-inning RBIs from Christian Nevarez and Alex Moutzourdis was all the Warriors needed to advance to semifinal play at De La Salle, a rematch of the 2023 NorCal championship game won by the visiting Spartans when they scored six runs in the seventh inning of an 11-8 victory. The way both teams are pitching well. It doesn't figure to be so high scoring.
In another Division 1 quarterfinal, a rematch of the 2024 NorCal D1 title game, visiting Granada-Livermore prevailed again, this time 5-4 with a stunning three-run seventh-inning rally that featured an RBI single from Austin Sheldon and two St. Mary’s errors. Joseph Holt and Jack Badger also had RBI singles, Tyler Palma scored three runs and Jarret Fahnhorst added two hits for the Matadors (20-9) who now travel to third seed Elk Grove (28-6), a 9-8 winner over Soquel. St. Mary’s (27-7) stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh.
The other D1 quarterfinal game saw third-seed Elk Grove pull off a spectacular four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh to defeat stunned and No. 6 Soquel. A five-run uprising in the sixth had given Soquel an 8-0 lead, but Elk Grove stuck for five in the bottom half and four in the seventh. Brayden Ford and a three-run triple, Chase Dyer added a two-run single and Antonio Cuevas and Landon Johnson also had RBIs.
NORCAL BRACKETS
TOP PLAYERS
Among top senior players still playing in both regionals, many who could be drafted next month. Player rankings by prepbaseballreport.com
Rank, position, name, high school, college commitment
1. SS Tyler Spangler, De La Salle, Stanford (injured)
4. OF Jared Grindinger, Huntington Beach, Tennessee
9. OF Anthony Murphy, Corona, LSU
12. SS Trey Ebel, Corona, Texas A&M
23. SS Alex Harrington, Cathedral Catholic, Stanford
33. RHP Graham Schlicht, De La Salle, Stanford
62. RHP Mateo Villanueva, Corona, San Diego State
83. OF Hunter Harrington, Cathedral Catholic, Stanford
98. 3B Dane Cunningham, Huntington Beach, Cal Poly-SLO
102. C Jesiah Andrade, Corona, uncommitted
158. RHP Jacob Oropeza, La Mirada, uncommitted
167. OF Owen Bone, Huntington Beach, Cal Baptist
178. OF Ty Daniels, Cathedral Catholic, Columbia
218. RHP Brandon Kleyman, De La Salle, St. Mary’s College
241. 2B Chase Groves, Elk Grove, California
254. SS Aiden Simpson, Corona, uncommitted
263. OF Tristen Bartlett, Elk Grove, Fresno Pacific
268. OF Landon Johnson, Elk Grove, Fresno Pacific
280. C Justin Torres, La Mirada, uncommitted
283. SS Nathan Choi, Valley Christian, uncommitted
314. RHP Jared Marchbank, Huntington Beach, New Mexico State
329. RHP Landon Cook, De La Salle, Oregon State
