Bay Area baseball about as topsy-turvy as it can be with teams beating each other left and right. Watch Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area for highlights on many of these teams each week on Sunday at 7 p.m. on YourTV 20, San Francisco. Replays during the week on Comcast SportsNet.

By Harold Abend, Special to CalHiSports.com

With the multitude of features and rankings that go up on the ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com web site early in the week this spring, particularly the state overall and divisional rankings for both baseball and softball, the Bay Area Top 20 has been pushed further into the middle of the week.

While that doesn't have an effect in the fall on football since games are late in the week, and more often than not during winter girls and boys basketball, and even spring softball, the same can't be said for baseball, especially this season.

For the second week in a row, a top five baseball team has lost before we could get these rankings posted.

We're not going to adjust them because by the time the weekend is over and the way baseball is going in the Bay Area this year, more will most likely have changed.

One place where some changes could take place is this weekend in Oakland. CalHiSports.com's Bay Area caravan will be there to bring you results and analysis of all three games at the 3rd annual Oakland A's/Dave Stewart Showdown hosted by De La Salle this Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum.

Bip Roberts' Skyline Titans kick it off at 1 pm when they take on Berkeley. At 4 pm, it's CalHiSports.com state overall No. 5 ranked Clovis West (Fresno) against previous state No. 16 ranked Monte Vista of Danville. The nightcap features host De La Salle, and first-year Coach Rick Steen, taking on previous No. 15 Jesuit (Carmichael), a team the Spartans blasted 17-3 at the Anderson Bat National Classic two weeks ago in Southern California. 

Baseball Top 20 Teams
(Records through April 25)

1. (6) Serra (San Mateo) 19-5
The boss and chief ranker, ESPN RISE Deputy Editor Mark Tennis, was torn between Coach Pete Jensen's boys and Clayton Valley as to which should be ranked atop the Bay Area this week, after four of the top five teams lost last week. With a little prodding from yours truly, we went with the Padres, who kept their hopes for a fourth straight WCAL title alive with a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over a St. Francis (Mountain View) team that earlier in the week defeated Valley Christian. Serra also had a 9-1 win against St. Ignatius of San Francisco to open the week behind Kevin McEntee's three RBIs. It doesn't get any easier this week with a road date in the City at Riordan is followed by a home game against a Bellarmine team that pinned Serra with its last loss (9-2) three weeks ago. After that comes Mitty (San Jose) with all three teams plus St. Francis still the WCAL title hunt.  

2. (4) Clayton Valley (Concord) 16-2
After beating an Irvington (Fremont) team in the Gordie Classic two weeks ago that owns a victory over Monte Vista, the Eagles took out Irvington again to open last week in an 11-3 victory. They came back with snake eyes again in an 11-0 shutout of Mt. Diablo of Concord. Based on those two outings, they get a bump into the second spot entering this week. We'll deal with what's happened this week in next weeks' rankings. Hint, the Eagles will be flying a little lower.

3. (5) St. Francis (Mountain View) 19-6
It might seem odd to move up a team two spots after a loss but the loss was 6-5 to Serra in a game that could have gone either way. Plus, earlier in the week Coach Mike Oakland's boys took out Valley Christian, 4-2, on the road in San Jose.  Another factor is the Lancers are now tied with Serra atop the WCAL at 7-2 and own a 14-13 win over the Padres earlier this season. This week they have common opponents in Mitty and Riordan, plus a date with Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco.

4. (1) Monte Vista (Danville) 12-5
The week started great for Coach Bill Piona's Mustangs as they defeated UCLA-bound San Ramon Valley (Danville) pitcher Scott Griggs after their own ace, Oregon-bound Christian Jones, outdueled his future Pac-10 foe in a 3-1 Monte Vista victory. After that it was disastrous. With CalHiSports.com's Mr. Kibosh in attendance, the boys bats went dead and they wasted a nice effort by pitcher Steve Swift in a game they lost 2-1 to EBAL rival Foothill (Pleasanton) on a throwing error in the top of the sixth inning. Even so, the Mustangs had a chance to win it in the seventh after loading the bases with one out before hitting into a double-play to end the game. Swift went six innings, allowed three hits, walked two and had 10 strikeouts. Then on Saturday at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton they lost 3-2 to Tokay of Lodi. Cal Poly-bound Joe Wagman had a double and an RBI against Tokay but also took the loss as the pitcher in his first start after missing three weeks with an injury.

5. (2) Valley Christian (San Jose) 17-7
We had the Warriors ahead of Bellarmine and Mitty to start last week and will keep them there despite the loss to St. Francis. They followed that up with an 8-1 win over St. Ignatius. This week's it's the Mitty rematch (and we know those results) followed by Riordan and Sacred Heart Cathedral.

6. (9) Bellarmine (San Jose) 17-6
After taking out previous state-ranked Oakdale two weeks ago, the Bells had two wins last week to get a three-spot jump. First, was a big 15-5 home victory over Mitty and then it was 12-0 at Riordan. We had no results of the St. Francis game to begin this week when penning this and will wait to see that game's results and the results of the Serra and St. Ignatius games later this week. We may even trek down to Serra on Friday afternoon to see the Bells and Padres.

7. (8) Los Gatos 18-3
Three wins last week plus an earlier victory over Valley Christian get the Cats a slight bump.

8. (3) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 18-7
A win over Sacred Heart Cathedral sandwiched by losses to Bellarmine and St. Mary's of Stockton Saturday at Banner Island Ballpark drop the Monarchs pretty far even before entering the week with Valley Christian. St. Ignatius and Serra are also on tap this week.

9. (7) Irvington (Fremont) 15-4
For the Vikings last week, it was wins over Fremont's Kennedy and Mission San Jose sandwiched around a loss to Clayton Valley.

10. (13) Wilcox (Santa Clara) 19-5
We were reluctant to move up Wilcox, but with others losing and four of the five losses to teams above them the Chargers get the three-spot bump.

11. (11) Foothill (Pleasanton) 11-7    
12. (14) De la Salle (Concord) 9-8
13. (12) Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) 15-3
14. (19) San Benito (Hollister) 14-4-1
15. (20) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 16-4
16. (18) Freedom (Oakley) 14-4
17. (17) California (San Ramon) 12-6
18. (10) San Ramon Valley (Danville) 11-7   
19. (16) Deer Valley (Antioch) 14-3
20. (nr) Campolindo (Moraga) 16-3

Baseball On the Bubble
Alameda 15-4, Amador Valley (Pleasanton) 11-7, Aragon (San Mateo) 19-5, Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 14-5, Concord 11-7, Drake (San Anselmo) 16-5, Dublin 11-8, Head-Royce (Oakland) 17-1, Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 15-3, Miramonte (Orinda) 15-2-1, Monterey 13-10, Montgomery (Santa Rosa) 15-3, Newark Memorial (Newark) 17-5, Oak Grove (San Jose) 17-3, Oakland Tech (Oakland) 14-8, Palma (Salinas) 18-5, Santa Teresa (San Jose) 17-3, Scotts Valley 17-4, Skyline (Oakland) 8-3, Stevenson (Pebble Beach) 14-4.

Softball Top 20 Teams

1. (1) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 23-0
Another week has passed and still no team from the WCAL has scored on Mitty this season after last week's wins over St. Francis (Mountain View) and St. Ignatius (San Francisco) by 13-0 and 6-0 scores, respectively. That means Mitty is now 6-0 against teams in its league and has outscored league foes by 46-0. All told, the Monarchs have outscored opponents 150-6 and maintain the No. 1 spot overall in the state while moving up to No. 2 in the ESPN RISE FAB 50 national rankings. On tap this week is a non-league game with Notre Dame of Salinas (one of five teams to score on Mitty this year) and a WCAL match-up across town at Valley Christian.  

2. (2) Freedom (Oakley) 15-3
The Falcons, who continue to hold down the overall state No. 4 spot, are also No. 10 in the FAB 50. Last week they had three wins capped off by Fresno State-bound Hannah Williams' no-hitter in an eight-inning 1-0 victory against Deer Valley and Northwestern-bound Emily Allard. The only base-runner against Williams reached on an error. Besides Williams' heroics, Melanie Padilla had the big bat for Freedom. The sophomore center-fielder was 4-for-4 and ended the game with her first home run of the season. The other two wins were shutouts by Williams in 10-0 and 3-0 victories over Pittsburg and Antioch, respectively. This week it's home games against Brentwood's Liberty and Heritage.

3. (4) Livermore 16-2
"That's sweet, but we want to move into the ESPN RISE FAB 50,” said Coach Bill Keller, when informed his young Cowgirls squad had moved up to No. 17 overall in the state and the third spot in the Bay Area. Last week they took control of the very tough East Bay Athletic League at 8-0 in league with victories over Granada (Livermore) Foothill (Pleasanton) and San Ramon Valley of Danville. This week, Livermore also is indeed now in the FAB 50.

4. (3) Notre Dame (Salinas) 21-4-1
In keeping with the state overall rankings where the Spirits check in at No. 18, and between Livermore and a San Benito squad with whom they own a head-to-head victory, the girls from Salinas only take a one-spot drop despite taking a 1-0 loss to start the week to Gilroy that was factored into the state rankings. To start last week Coach Joe Given became only the third coach in state history to record his 700th victory as Kylie Linnane came back from a hyper-extended knee to pitch a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 5-1 victory over Salinas. Ashley Madison had the big blow with a three-run home run.

5. (5) San Benito (Hollister) 18-3
After a 10-day layoff, the final Bay Area team to be state-ranked, the No. 19 Haybaler girls, came up with a pair of shutouts last week, 4-0 at North Salinas and 5-0 at home against Salinas. Against Salinas, senior star hurler Marissa Ibarra went all the way and pitched a three-hitter with eight strikeouts. Sophomore Jessica Vest added two hits including her fourth home run of the season and two RBIs.

6. (6) Foothill (Pleasanton) 13-5
Falcon Coach Matt Sweeney told the Contra Costa Times his team got "punched in the nose pretty good” by Livermore in the 8-0 loss. Foothill may have five losses but they're all to teams ranked ahead of them. Two losses are to Livermore, two are to Mitty and one is to Freedom. You can't accuse Sweeney's girls of dodging tough competition. This week it's California (San Ramon) and Carondelet.

7. (7) Presentation (San Jose) 22-4-1
The Panthers had two wins last week, 3-2 and 6-3 respective victories over Valley Christian (San Jose) and St. Francis of Mountain View, however a loss to Notre Dame (Belmont) to start this week will probably cost them next week. They still have St. Francis again later this week.

8. (14) Montgomery (Santa Rosa) 17-0*
With everyone around them taking a loss, it was time to reward the young Viking girls who continue unblemished this season after duplicate 10-0 shutouts against Santa Rosa and Ursuline of Santa Rosa. A forfeit over Allen (Santa Rosa) is not included. Against Ursuline, junior hurler Taylor Stroud pitched a one-hitter and her battery mate Liz Albrecht his two home runs,

9. (11) Deer Valley (Antioch) 9-7
This is one where we are far apart from the San Francisco Chronicle's metro rankings and even the Contra Costa Times East Bay poll and that's because of last week's CalHiSports.com State Athlete of the Week Emily Allard. We're throwing out a lot of the early season when Allard was rounding into shape from being the linchpin of the basketball team. Reality is it took eight innings last week for the nation's No. 10 team to eek out a 1-0 victory against Allard and that's plenty good for this bunch.

10. (9) Concord 13-3
Both the Contra Costa Times and San Francisco Chronicle have Concord and Antioch next to each other with Concord on top in the Chron and Antioch ahead in the CoCo Times. Each had losses last week, the Minutemen girls to College Park (Pleasant Hill) and Antioch to Freedom. The deciding factor for us was the head-to-head win for the Minutegirls.

11. (10) Antioch 13-4
12. (12) Liberty (Brentwood) 13-5
13. (8) James Logan (Union City) 17-2-1
14. (16) San Marin (Novato) 14-1*
15. (17) Carlmont (Belmont) 16-4-1
16. (18) Notre Dame (Belmont) 18-6
17. (19) Pinole Valley (Pinole) 13-2
18. (20) Albany 14-2
19. (nr) Castro Valley 13-5
20. (15) Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) 16-2

Softball Teams On the Bubble
Acalanes (Lafayette) 11-4, Castilleja (Palo Alto) 12-0, Drake (San Anselmo) 15-6, Las Lomas (Walnut Creek) 15-3, Mt. Pleasant (San Jose) 15-6, Overfelt (San Jose) 12-2, Rancho Cotate 15-1-1, Redwood (Larkspur) 15-3, San Ramon Valley (Danville) 10-8, St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 13-7-1, St. Patrick St. Vincent (Vallejo) 15-2, Stevenson (Pebble Beach) 13-5, Ukiah 12-3, Westmont (Campbell) 16-5-1, Wilcox (Santa Clara) 15-5.

*Not including wins by forfeit

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