Baseball: Boras Classic begins on Tuesday

The Southern California division of the 16-team Boras Classic begins on Tuesday at JSerra and Santa Ana Mater Dei. The quality of the competition should be outstanding. The championship game is set for Friday at 6 p.m. at JSerra.

The winner of the Southern California Division will face Northern California winner St. Francis on May 2 at noon at Cal State Fullerton.

JSerra, ranked No. 1 by The Times, opens at 6 p.m. against Granite Hills.

No. 2 San Clemente takes on City Section title favorite Chatsworth at 3 p.m. at JSerra. Perhaps the best game of the day will be top 25 teams Aliso Niguel and Vista Murrieta playing at 9 a.m. at Mater Dei.

Lots of top players are in the tournament. The two best senior catchers in Southern California, Chris Betts and Lucas Herbert, play for Long Beach Wilson and San Clemente, respectively.

The top pitchers include Stanford-bound Tristan Beck of Corona, UCLA-bound Kyle Molnar of Aliso Niguel and UCLA-bound Hagen Danner of Huntington Beach.

There are outfielders galore, such as Blake Rutherford of Chaminade, Alex McKenna of Alemany, Brady Shockey and Jake Pries of JSerra and Josh Stephen of Mater Dei.

The semifinals are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday at JSerra and Mater Dei.

First-round schedule for Tuesday:

At JSerra: Great Oak vs. Damien, 9 a.m.; Alemany vs. Palm Desert, noon; Chatsworth vs. San Clemente, 3 p.m.; JSerra vs. Granite Hills, 6 p.m. At Mater Dei: Vista Murrieta vs. Aliso Niguel, 9 a.m.; Chaminade vs. Long Beach Wilson, noon; Birmingham vs. Huntington Beach, 3 p.m.; Corona vs. Mater Dei, 6 p.m.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer