Prep Rally: Who can defeat Corona for the Division I baseball title?
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The high school baseball pairings for the Southern Section will be released on Monday. First-round games are Thursday and Friday. The question is can anyone defeat Corona in Division 1?
Playoff time
Winning the Southern Section Division 1 baseball title is one of the toughest tasks. There have been lots of great teams that were heavily favored to win the title but were upset. Corona High will be heavily favored having a one-two pitching duo of Ethan Schiefelbein and Seth Hernandez that is undefeated when either started a game this season.
So who are the contenders to knock off the Panthers?
Mission League champion Harvard-Westlake has the hottest hitter in the Southland in Bryce Rainer, who also will be the team’s closer, plus an ace in Duncan Marsten. The Wolverines also could be getting back last year’s ace, Thomas Bridges, who has pitched in one game this season after an injury. Bridges has been throwing bullpens and should be available.
Santa Margarita has one of the most effective pitchers in Cade Townsend, who is 5-0. Orange Lutheran won the Trinity League title, is battle tested and has outstanding leadoff hitter Derek Curiel.
Huntington Beach loves to play in pressure-packed games. Catcher Trent Grindlinger leads a team that fears no one.
The championship game will be at Lake Elsinore’s Storm Stadium. One team needs to win five consecutive games in a 32-team tournament.
Here’s a look at individual players to watch during the playoffs.
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Baseball rewind
Zach Ireland of Beckman struck out 16 and threw a no-hitter in 5-0 win over Irvine.
Boston Bateman of Camarillo threw six no-hit innings and struck out 14 in win over Simi Valley.
Vinny Van der Wel hit a grand slam and finished with four hits and four RBIs in a 15-2 win over St. Francis.
St. John Bosco ended a 16-game losing streak to Orange Lutheran. The Braves could be getting an at-large playoff berth after finishing tied for fourth place in the Trinity League. A key contributor has been sophomore pitcher Jack Champlin, a transfer from Long Beach Poly.
The City Section still has two weeks left in its regular season. Birmingham and Granada Hills are expected to decide the West Valley League title next week with a two-game series.
Carson is on an 11-game winning streak and looking like the prime challenger to Birmingham and Granada Hills in the City Open Division playoffs.
Here’s the final top 25 regular-season rankings by The Times.
Submarine-style
It’s tough enough when you first face a pitcher who throws submarine style, where the ball is released from just above the ground with lots of strange movement. But it could be double trouble hitting against Hart High, because the Indians have two submariners who come out of the bullpen with a different look.
Right-hander Ian Edwards, a senior, is 5-1 with seven saves and an 0.84 ERA. Left-hander Tristan Purfoy, a junior, is 3-0 with three saves. Both pitched Tuesday to help Hart clinch at least a share of the Foothill League championship with a 9-4 win over Canyon Country Canyon.
Here’s a report.
Softball
In the final week of the regular season, Ilove’a Brittingham of Oaks Christian hit three home runs in a win over Westlake that clinched the Marmonte League title for the Lions.
There’s a big competition for leaders in home runs. Dani Jackman of University Prep has 20 home runs. Brittingham has 18 home runs with Alyssa Torres of Valley View and Taylor Schmaker of Esperanza.
The Southern Section playoff pairings were released, and Orange Lutheran picked up No. 1 seed in Division 1. Here’s the report.
One of the top players in the tournament is UCLA commit Aleena Garcia of Whittier Christian. Here’s a profile of Garcia.
Birmingham coach Jim Rose earned his 400th career coaching victory.
Track
Southern Section teams held their league finals this past week and now the Southern Section prelims are set for Saturday..
The Division 1 prelims will be held at Trabuco Hills, Division 2 at Ontario, Division 3 at Yorba Linda and Division 4 at Carpinteria. The finals are May 11 at Moorpark High School.
One of the best performances of the week belonged to sophomore JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. He set a school record in the high jump at 6-10.25. Here’s a report.
Devin Bragg of Los Alamitos showed he’s a strong contender to win section and state titles in the 100 and 200. He ran a wind-aided 10.37 in his league 100 meters final.
The City Section will have league finals this week. The West Valley League will hold its final at Birmingham. Jordan Coleman of Granada Hills ran a 10.90 100 at the prelims. The Colisuem League final is Friday at Crenshaw.
Volleyball
When Audrey Flanagan saw the last ball land softly on the opposite side of the net, she whirled around and hugged her partner Giselle Yau, partly in joy and partly in relief.
Flanagan, a sophomore, played a major role in Mira Costa’s run to the Southern Section Division 1 indoor volleyball finals in the fall, but while the Mustangs came up short on the court, they reign supreme on the sand after defeating South Bay rival Redondo Union, 4-1, to repeat as Division 1 girls’ beach volleyball champions Saturday at Long Beach City College.
Here’s the report.
The Southern Section boys volleyball playoffs resume this week. Here’s the updated pairings.
Lacrosse
Palisades continued its supremacy in lacrosse, sweeping the City Section boys and girls championships for the second year in a row. ‘
The girls defeated El Camino Real 13-7 for their second straight title and third overall while the boys defeated El Camino Real for the fourth straight year to capture their eighth consecutive crown and ninth total. The Dolphins’ boys and girls teams have both made the finals every year since the City sanctioned lacrosse playoffs in 2014.
The Southern Section announced its playoff pairings. St. Margaret’s is seeded No. 1 in Division 1 boys with Foothill seeded No. 1 in Division 1 girls. Here’s boys pairings. Here’s girls pairings.
LA84
The greatest legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was the LA 84 Foundation, which has helped maintain, expand and cultivate youth sports in Southern California.
Here’s a look at how important the LA84 Foundation has been in supporting inclusion among sports and athletes in the Southland.
Football
The big news of the week was Raul Lara being named head coach at Mater Dei. He had been running the program at St. Anthony. He won five Division 1 titles as Long Beach Poly, so he knows Division 1 football.
Here’s a look at Lara’s selection at Mater Dei.
The NFL draft saw two former receivers from Calabasas, Jermaine Burton and Johnny Wilson, taken.
Next year, get ready for four members of the 2021 Servite football team _ Tetairoa McMillan, Mason Graham, Noah Fifita and Jacob Manu to be part of the draft discussion.
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Notes . . .
After three years as an assistant basketball coach at Harvard-Westlake, Alex Lieu has accepted the position of head coach at Cathedral. . . .
Kyle Kegley has resigned as basketball coach at Westlake. . . .
Rafa Garcia is the new boys’ soccer coach at Sierra Canyon. . . .
Quarterback Leo Hannan of Servite has committed to Michigan State. . . .
Former Sierra Canyon guard Isaiah Elohim has committed to USC. . . .
Jon Sampang is the new girls’ basketball coach at Heritage Christian. . . .
Everett Capelle of St. Margaret’s has committed to UCLA for track and cross-country. . . .
Ruben Douglas, who was a star guard at Bell-Jeff and then played overseas, has died. He was 44. . . .
Calabasas pitcher Lee Atkinson has committed to Regis. . . .
Former college coach Jody Wynn is expected to replace Kevin Kiernan as girls’ basketball coach at Mater Dei. An official announcement will come this week. She was an assistant last season and has a daughter on the team. . . .
Donald Thompson Jr., a key player for King/Drew’s City Section Open Division championship basketball team, has transferred to Washington Prep. . . .
Frank Rice, who was an assistant football coach at Leuzinger, is the new head coach at Washington Prep. . . .
Corona del Mar tight end Zach Giuliano has committed to Stanford. . . .
Pitcher Espn Simpson of Corona Centennial has committed to Butler. . . .
Vince DeGuzman is the new girls’ basketball coach at Village Christian. . . .
Campbell Hall basketball standout Baron Bellamy has committed to Westmont College. . . .
Birmingham has begun construction of its new mondo track. With its facility unavailable, the City Section track prelims and finals will take place May 10 and May 17 at El Camino College.
From the archives: Jayden Daniels
Taken No. 2 overall in last week’s NFL draft was quarterback Jayden Daniels, who graduated from Cajon and went on to star at Arizona State and LSU.
It’s pretty amazing that Daniels, Bryce Young and CJ Stroud were all playing in the Southland at the same time during their high school days, with Young at Mater Dei and Stroud at Rancho Cucamonga.
Here’s a report from 2018 on Daniels’ ability as a dual-threat quarterback.
Recommendations
From the Washington Post, a story on three Afghan brothers finding joy in lacrosse.
From Pleasantonweekly.com, a story on former Raiders running back Napoleon Kaufman becoming the head coach at Dubliand n High.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, a story on a pitcher throwing consecutive no-hitters.
From MLB.com, a story on former La Mirada pitcher Jared Jones.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time...
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
