MEET THE TOP TEAM: SERRA
It wasn’t a surprise to see Serra as the team atop the Central Coast Section Division I baseball bracket.
The Padres have been excellent all year, posting an overall record of 23-6. They earned the No. 1 seed in the West Catholic Athletic League tournament and beat No. 8 Archbishop Riordan 3-0 in the first round.
No. 5 Bellarmine emerged as an interloper in the second round, upsetting Serra 1-0. The Bells went on to win the tournament, beating No. 2 Valley Christian 3-1 the next day.
But Serra’s overall strong regular season won out. The Padres finished 12-2 in the WCAL, clearing Valley Christian by two games in the league standings.
Along the way, they notched big wins over every WCAL heavyweight at least once. Serra split its first two WCAL series with St. Francis and Valley Christian, then swept St. Ignatius the following week.
The Padres went on to sweep Archbishop Mitty and beat nonleague foe Benicia, a strong NCS squad, 9-4 at the Boras Classic.
Serra has a loaded, talented squad. The Padres are led at the plate by senior Ian Josephson, who leads the team in batting average (.495), on-base percentage (.583), home runs (7) and stolen bases (24).
On the mound, Serra has a number of strong arms from which to turn. Junior Aiden Waters leads the staff with a 1.25 ERA in 11 appearances, but junior Nate Hui (1.72 ERA, 14 appearances) and Kelley Crawford (1.91 ERA, 11 appearances) have also been key.
Junior Riley Lim has been the Padres’ most prolific pitcher, completing 49 2/3 innings with a 2.40 ERA.
TOP STORYLINES
Will it be a WCAL school winning Division I, or is there any opening for one of the other schools?
The WCAL has been the dominant conference in CCS baseball for generations, but there are not Catholic schools alone in the D-I bracket.
Los Gatos is the No. 3 seed in the Division I field and will host No. 6 Bellarmine in the first round Saturday.
The Bells showed that they can beat any team in the WCAL during their thrilling run to the league tournament title. Will the Wildcats be able to keep them at bay?
The only other non-WCAL team in Division I is No. 7 Soquel, which brings an impressive 25-1 record to the table. But the Knights have a tall task in the opening round – they must travel to San Jose and face No. 2 Valley Christian at noon on Saturday.
The Division II bracket features another one of the best non-WCAL teams, Leigh, as its top seed. Other strong Bay Area programs represented in D-II include No. 2 Menlo-Atherton, No. 5 Wilcox and No. 4 Archbishop Mitty, which had a down year at 13-14 but is always a talented threat.
WHO CAN MAKE A SURPRISE RUN?
Why not Bellarmine? The Bells already ran all the way through to the WCAL tournament championship with wins over St. Francis, Serra and Valley Christian on consecutive days.
Bellarmine lines up first against Los Gatos and would then be on track to meet Soquel or Valley Christian. Serra and St. Francis, if they make it through, are waiting on the other side of the bracket.
In Division II, No. 5 Wilcox spoiled Los Gatos’ perfect league season with a win last week. Could the Chargers play spoiler in the D-II bracket?
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Frankly, any WCAL team in the field is in play for the Division I title. St. Ignatius, St. Francis, Serra and Valley have all had strong seasons.
All four are ranked within the top seven of MaxPreps’ San Francisco Metro rankings. Valley Christian is No. 2, Serra is No. 4, SI is No. 6 and St. Francis checks in at No. 7.
The same goes for Mitty and No. 6 Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Division II bracket. In Division III, what appears to be a fairly wide-open tournament could see No. 2 Sequoia, No. 3 Willow Glen or No. 4 Palo Alto factor in.
Top seed Carlmont (13-14) headlines a group of teams flirting with .500 overall records in the Division IV field, but watch out for No. 5 Branham (13-10). The Bruins were battle-tested in the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mt. Hamilton Division and have wins over Division II and III playoff teams Leigh, Pioneer and Christopher on their resume.