And down the stretch they come in CCS and NCS baseball, softball playoffs. Highlights can be seen of many games on Sunday at 7 p.m. on Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area. Tune to YourTV, Channel 20, San Francisco. Replays during the week throughout Northern California on Comcast Sportsnet.

By Harold Abend, Special to CalHiSports.com

Yes, the Preakness is history, and the Belmont will be run on June 6, but the horses aren't the only ones coming down the stretch, as the CIF Central Coast Section and CIF North Coast Section baseball and softball playoffs are nearing the finish line and will hit the wire this Saturday, a week before the equines race again in New York.

Also in action last week was the CalHiSports.com caravan, hopping back and forth across the Bay to catch playoff action, making stops in Santa Rosa, San Francisco and Danville.

We also caught two track meets on Saturday in Santa Rosa.

As expected, the seedings in the NCS have been pretty true to form with a handful of teams not seeded 1-4 breaking through to the semifinals in both baseball and softball

The same cannot be said for the CCS, especially in Division I baseball, where despite the seedings, four West Catholic Athletic League schools are into the semifinals.  

Baseball Top 20 Teams
(Records through May 23)

1. (1) Serra (San Mateo) 28-6
Citing a rule that said a win over McQueen of Reno on April 15 was unreported to the section and thus becomes a forfeit, the CCS docked the Padres in the Division I seeding and forced the whole pecking order out of alignment. After opening the playoffs with a mercy-shortened 11-0 victory over Homestead of Cupertino, the ruling also forced a fourth game against WCAL rival Valley Christian; and produced a third victory, 2-1, over the Warriors. USF-bound Danny Chavez, whose 90-year-old grandmother sat next to us at a game in San Mateo this season, got the win after allowing three hits and fanning nine against the two-time defending champions. With the two wins, Serra moves up to No. 11 in the state this week. Can the Padres cap it all off by getting retiring coach Pete Jensen a title? The semis are Wednesday with a fourth meeting against Bellarmine.

2. (2) De La Salle (Concord) 17-8
The Spartans also get a bump up to No. 18 in the state. They only had one game in the NCS Division I playoffs last week and took a 9-7 slugfest from EBAL rival Amador Valley. State Athlete of the Week Noah Perio continued to smack the ball around with three hits, including his sixth home run this season. Next up is another league foe California of San Ramon, with Sparta on a 10-game winning streak and facing a team it defeated 9-0 and 9-8 this season. Coach Rick Steen's charges appear to be peeking at the right time. Can they sustain the momentum?

3. (3) Clayton Valley (Concord) 22-3
A third team from the Bay Area cracked the state top 20 this week and it's Coach Bob Ralston's Eagles, who had to go eight innings but got it done against last year's 4A finalist Arroyo of San Lorenzo. The reward is they get the final spot in the state rankings. Sophomore Chaz Meadows pitched eight strong innings and had an infield single in the eighth to ignite a game-winning rally as the Eagles won 4-3. Next up is Casa Grande of Petaluma in the semis.

4. (4) Valley Christian (San Jose) 22-7
The season's over for the two-time defending CCS D1 champions but after a 2-1 loss to the No. 11 team in the state, there's no way we're dropping these boys down yet until we see if one of the three remaining WCAL teams can beat Serra to win the section title.

5. (5) St. Francis (Mountain View) 26-8
Although they too were charged with a forfeit and docked in the seedings for an unreported win over McQueen, the Lancers would seem to have benefited from the skewed draw in the CCS D1 bracket since they were able to avoid meeting a WCAL foe in the first two rounds, which were 4-2 and 9-0 victories over Gilroy and third-seeded Wilcox, respectively. Now they get to avoid Serra in the semis but must face a Mitty team they split with this season.

6. (8) Freedom (Oakley) 21-4
The third-seeded Falcons took out Newark Memorial 4-1 in NCS Div. I quarterfinals and faced upstart BVAL foe Deer Valley on Tuesday in the semis. Hint: Falcons flying into weekend.

7. (9) Alameda 21-4
A month ago they were on the bubble, then No. 12, then No. 9 and now Coach Ken Arnerich's squad is making a move on the top five. Last week as the top seed in NCS Division II competition the Hornets thumped Rancho Cotate of Rohnert Park, 9-0. This week they had a Tuesday date with Cardinal Newman at historic Lincoln Park's Dick Bartell Field and CalHiSports.com had a seat at the backstop for the action against the fourth-seeded Cardinals. Another hint: We did not kibosh the Hornets.

8. (11) Los Gatos 26-5
CCS Division II top seed picked up two wins last week over Burlingame and Leland (San Jose) by respective scores of 8-3 and 10-5. A WCAL split this season with an 8-4 loss to St. Francis and a 5-2 win over Valley Christian seems to make this spot fit for now. Up next is Monterey in the semifinals.

9. (12) Bellarmine (San Jose) 23-10
The No. 8 seed in the CCS D1 bracket showed what a fallacy the seeding system turned out to be. As expected the Bells rung up Oak Grove (San Jose), 8-1, then they dispatched top-seeded San Benito by the same 8-1 margin to move into the semis against Serra.

10. (16) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 21-11
Our last write-up team also sowed the seeds in CCS D1 as the 10th-seeded Monarchs took out No. 7 Salinas, 11-3, and then they put a 10-1 thumping on second-seeded Santa Teresa. The reward is we move them up for now pending a semi match-up with St. Francis.

11. (nr) Deer Valley (Antioch) 20-6
12. (6) Monte Vista (Danville) 17-9
13. (7) San Benito (Hollister) 26-5-1  
14. (10) Wilcox (Santa Clara) 26-8
15. (13) Newark Memorial (Newark) 22-6
16. (17) Palma (Salinas) 24-5
17. (18) Miramonte (Orinda) 21-3-1
18. (19) Casa Grande (Petaluma) 19-6
19. (20) Drake (San Anselmo) 22-5
20. (nr) California (San Ramon) 16-9

Baseball Teams On the Bubble
Aragon (San Mateo) 26-6, Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) 20-5, Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 22-5, Head-Royce (Oakland) 22-2, Irvington (Fremont) 19-6, Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 20-5, Novato 17-10, Santa Teresa (San Jose) 23-6, Skyline (Oakland) 18-3.

Softball Top 20 Teams

1. (1) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 30-0
If Coach Sarah Thomas's girls can win their next two games they will finish No. 1 in the state and win the mythical national crown. Wednesday it's a Division II semifinal game against Leigh (San Jose), and then a potential title game matchup against either a Presentation (San Jose) team it's defeated twice, or their semifinal opponent Westmont of Campbell. Last week, the Monarchs rapped out 16 hits and five girls knocked in runs in a 10-0 whitewash of Santa Clara, their only game of the week. Jillian Anderson had five RBI, Vanessa Alvarez had two RBI and Miyuki Navarrete had three hits, including a triple and one batted in.  

2. (2) Freedom (Oakley) 22-3
The Falcons can't move up here but they did get a bump up in the most recently released state top 20 after their 11th-straight win, a 6-0 victory over Castro Valley in the NCS Division I playoffs. Hannah Williams tossed a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts and also had two hits and two knocked in. Malena Padilla had an RBI-triple and scored once. The top seed now faces Bay Valley League rival Antioch in the semis, a team it has beaten three times this season.  

3. (3) Livermore 23-2
The last thing on Coach Bill Keller's mind would be looking to Freedom and past a fourth meeting with Foothill, which is exactly what's on tap Wednesday in the NCS D1 semis after the Cowgirls posted a surprising 10-0 mercy-shortened win over Newark Memorial. "We really appreciate your coverage.  No matter what happens it's been a great season for us.  Thanks for putting us on the map!” wrote the affable Keller by email. "We know Foothill is going to be a dogfight again and we will have to play well to win.  We'll show up mentally and physically and give 100 percent and hope to get a shot at Freedom.”

4. (4) Notre Dame (Salinas) 26-5-1
After an 8-0 blanking of Santa Catalina in the only game for the Spirits last week, they move into the CCS Division III semifinals against Stevenson of Pebble Beach. Before the anticipated matchup with Notre Dame (Belmont), the Spirits must win and the Tigers have to beat San Lorenzo Valley in the other semi. At least the entire team is at full strength now that the state's all-time second-winningest Coach Joe Given is back at full strength after spending a day in the hospital last week suffering from a bout with pneumonia.

5. (5) San Benito (Hollister) 25-4
The Haybaler girls posted a 4-1 defeat of Piedmont Hills of San Jose, avenging an earlier 4-1 loss to that team at the Charlie Miguel Tournament. Although it's not reflected in the record shown here and since it doesn't change the rankings, we'll tell you the No. 3 seed in CCS Division I has already taken out second-seeded Wilcox and now will play for their fourth consecutive title on Saturday against Tri-Valley League rival Gilroy, a 10-iining 7-6 winner over North Salinas.


6. (6) Foothill (Pleasanton) 18-7
It's now a fourth date with Livermore after a 5-1 quarterfinal win over EBAL rival San Ramon Valley. Could the fourth time be a charm? Never count out Coach Matt Sweeney or the Falcon girls. They've been here many times before.

7. (7) Notre Dame (Belmont) 23-8
It wasn't a walkover but it was still a 4-1 win for the Tigers over Burlingame which gets the CCS Division III second-seeded Peninsula girls into the semis against San Lorenzo Valley.

8. (8) Presentation (San Jose) 25-5-1
Molly Medeiros pitched Pres into the semis after the girls held on for a 1-0 victory over Aptos. Before they get another crack at playing spoiler against Mitty they'll need to dispatch Westmont of Campbell.

9. (9) Montgomery (Santa Rosa) 23-1*
After having their unbeaten streak ended two weeks ago, the NCS Division II top-seeded Viking girls came back to pull out an 11-inning 4-3 victory over Redwood of Larkspur. They host Las Lomas (Walnut Creek) in the semis and if the CalHiSports.com caravan can get on the road in time we plan on checking out the game.

10. (11) Antioch 19-6
The Panther girls move up a spot and into the top 10 for the first time in many years after a 3-0 victory over James Logan. Now it's a fourth meeting with Freedom. This may not be a long stay in the top 10.

11. (13) Pinole Valley (Pinole) 22-3
12. (16) Concord 20-5
13. (10) James Logan (Union City) 22-3-1
14. (12) Rancho Cotate (Rohnert Park) 21-3-1*
15. (19) Albany 21-3
16. (20) Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) 22-3
17. (17) Castro Valley 18-6
18. (nr) Wilcox (Santa Clara) 21-6
19. (nr) Las Lomas (Walnut Creek) 20-4
20. (nr) Gilroy 15-12-1

On the Bubble
Carlmont (Belmont) 22-5-1, Clayton Valley (Concord) 16-10, Deer Valley (Antioch) 13-11, North Salinas (Salinas) 18-6, Piedmont Hills (San Jose) 21-9, Redwood (Larkspur) 22-5*, San Marin (Novato) 18-4, San Ramon Valley (Danville) 16-10, St. Patrick-St. Vincent (Vallejo) 23-2, Stevenson (Pebble Beach) 21-5, Westmont (Campbell) 22-6-1,

*Not including wins by forfeit

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