Top 10 Central Coast Section high school baseball rankings (3/18/2024

With six players committed to Division 1 college programs, top-ranked Valley Christian not resting on laurels

With most of their top players returning from last year's 31-4 team, Valley Christian's baseball team could have taken the offseason easy. 

Instead, the Warriors seem recharged starting the season with a 9-0 record. They are the obvious pick as the No. 1 team in the SBLive Central Coast Section baseball rankings. 

With six players already committed to Division I programs, the talent pool this season is among the best coach John Diatte has ever had, especially the Class of 2025. He's the state's third-winningest active coach with 743 victories to go along with 11 CCS titles. 

Outfielder Tatum Marsh is the only senior among the six who have committed. He and his brother Quentin, a pitcher and DH are headed to Stanford. The others, all juniors, are pitcher/outfielder Brock Ketelsen (Stanford), outfield Hunter Fujimoto (Santa Clara), pitcher Rohan Kasanagotu (USC) and catcher Jordan Ortiz (LMU). 

Check back week to week to see where your team ranks. 

1. Valley Christian (9-0)

The state's third-winningest active coach John Diatte knew this was a special team and thus far the Warriors are living up to all billing with a 9-0 start while pulling out both tight and blowout games. The team ERA is a scant 0.92. 

2. Serra (7-1)

Other than a 5-4 loss to Capuchino and two one-run wins, the Padres have largely rolled.  They play a two-game set with Riordan on Tuesday and Friday. 

3. Bellarmine (5-1)

The rugged West Catholic Athletic League is represented with the top three teams as ususal. The Bells sustained their first loss of the season Friday to het another WCAL squad, St. Ignatius (5-4), three days aver they beat the Wildcats at home, 3-0.  

4. Los Gatos (7-1)

After opening the season with an 8-3 loss to Saint Francis, the Wildcats have rattled off seven straight wins, including blowouts of Santa Teresa (11-3), Leigh (17-3) and Menlo-Atherton (12-3). Los Gatos has two-game set with Palo Alto this week. 

5. St. Ignatius (7-2)

The defending Northern California D3 champion has it rolling with shutout wins over California, Del Oro and Willow Glen. After back-to-back losses to Rocklin and Bellarmine, the Wildcats got it back into gear with a win over Bellarmine (5-4) and Mountain View (2-1).

6. Capuchino (9-2)

The Mustang set the tone to the season with a 20-0 win over Kennedy. They've had other impressive wins over WCAL foes Riordan (5-3) and Saint Francis (3-2). 

7. Menlo School (8-3)

After a bad loss to Santa Teresa (13-0), the Knights have recorded some impressive wins including over The King's Academy (6-0) and Mills (13-4), a team it visits on Thursday. 

8. Carmel (4-2)

The Padres rebounded from tough losses to Los Gatos (4-3) and Salinas (4-2) with four straight wins, including a pair of St. Francis-Watsonville (10-4 and 12-7). 

9. Mitty (6-3-1)

Junior infielder Waylon Walsh (.469), senior catcher Andrew Sauceda (.467) and senior outfielder Connor Anderson (.450) are ripping the cover off the ball. 

10. Sacred Heart Cathedral (6-4)

The Irish opened with a pair of setbacks, but have since won six of eight, including 13-0 over Menlo-Atherton and 5-2 over Bishop O'Dowd. The Irish dropped a pair to Serra last week, including 9-8.. 

Five more to consider

Westmont (7-3)

Woodside (6-1-1)

Branham (7-2)

Soquel (7-2)

Saint Francis (3-4-1)