The North Coast Section released its seeding for the baseball and softball playoffs on Sunday, which starts the road to crowning the 12 enrollment division champions in the two sports, with games starting this Tuesday. We take a look at each field, how the seeds played out, which players could impact the division, and assign a sleeper team and predicted champion to each group. But as previous years have already taught us, nothing will go as planned.
This feature focuses on the lower three enrollment divisions.
DIVISION IV (bracket)
TOP FOUR SEEDS: Middletown, McKinleyville, Fort Bragg, Piedmont
OVERVIEW: With 14 teams in the field, top seeds Middletown and McKinleyville have first-round byes. Middletown swept an early-season pair from McKinleyville, and went on to capture the NCL-I title by a game over Fort Bragg. Four seed Piedmont is fresh off winning the WACC-Shoreline tournament title, in which it defeated Encinal in the championship game.
Middletown juniors Jack Bliss and Drake Harbison led the Mustang attack at the plate, while senior Thomas Cook and multi-sport standout Luke Holt anchor the pitching staff. McKinleyville, meanwhile, posted a winning record in the HDN-Big 5, thanks in part to an outstanding season from sophomore Cameron Saso, who is 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA on the mound and is batting .394, second on the team behind senior Kameron Chance.
Three seed Fort Bragg is led by a deep pitching staff, which includes junior Garrett James, who has 65 strikeouts in 41 innings pitched and sports a 0.65 ERA. Junior Marcos Hernandez is 6-0 with a 0.90 ERA, while junior Andrew Johnston is 5-1 with 1.42 ERA. Four seed Piedmont is another team who could make a run, especially when Carson Gerhardy is on the mound. The 6-foot-5 left-hander is 5-1 with a 0.92 ERA, and is also batting .386 with two home runs.
Five seed Arcata had won four straight before falling to Ferndale in the HDN Tournament, and could get a challenge from 12 seed Lick-Wilmerding, who shared the regular season BCL-West title before falling to University in the league tournament championship game. Redwood Christian is a dangerous six seed, especially when Stanford commit Alex Williams takes the mound.
Keep an eye out for eight seed St. Patrick-St. Vincent as well, after the Bruins won five of their last six to claim the TCAL-Stone title, outscoring Hercules and Salesian 18-1 to win the league tournament. The same goes for 10 seed Saint Mary’s, which played in the more difficult TCAL-Rock Division and has a bona-fide staff ace in senior Dan Colwell.
SLEEPER TEAM: Past success in the post-season can breed confidence in a program, so we won’t be surprised if last year’s Division V champion, Redwood Christian, can make a run. Williams aside, the Eagles have sharpened the depth on their roster by playing some solid programs this year, and are certainly not out of the title picture.
PREDICTED CHAMPION: Piedmont
DIVISION V (bracket)
TOP FOUR SEEDS: St. Vincent de Paul, Branson, St. Bernard’s, Fremont Christian
OVERVIEW: Top seed St. Vincent de Paul has a long and illustrious history of success in the section, including four straight titles from 1986-1989. The Mustangs have not won a crown since 2008, but first-year head coach Stan Switala has them unbeaten heading into the playoffs, thus earning the top seed. St. Vincent is hitting a whopping .404 as a team, and senior Ethan Rapaport is hitting .525 while also holding an 11-0 record on the mound.
This is a deep Division V field, however, and that includes a Branson team as the two seed that beat Drake earlier this season and recently notched back-to-back wins over Tamalpais and Marin Catholic. Three seed St. Bernard’s cruised to the HDN-Little 7 this season, and like St. Vincent, boasts a standout on the mound who can also hit. Senior Garrison Finck is a three-sport athlete who was the league MVP in basketball, and is 7-0 with a 0.79 ERA on the diamond, while also batting .436 with 18 RBI.
After winning its 10th straight BCL-General league title, four seed Fremont Christian rounds out a quartet of legitimate title contenders. The Warriors have wins over Redwood Christian, Athenian, Irvington, and Newark Memorial, and three of their four losses happened at the Nipomo Tournament in Santa Maria, playing much larger schools. Ramon Barragan and John Sanguinetti lead a potent lineup which is batting .439 as a team, and junior Bubba Gomez could make a claim as arguably the top all-around player in the division, owning a 8-1 record with a 1.01 ERA and 116 strikeouts on the mound, while also batting .551 with four home runs and 33 stolen bases.
A quarterfinal rematch between Fremont Christian and Athenian could be special, after the two teams played into extra innings during the regular season. The same could be said for a possible match-up between St. Bernard’s and six seed Berean Christian. The Eagles have already shown they can be giant killers, with regular season wins over Miramonte and Piedmont, and a 2-1 defeat to Acalanes. That could mean St. Bernard’s will need to plan for Finck to pitch in the quarterfinals.
SLEEPER TEAM: With a premium on pitching depth in the post-season, Athenian could very well make a run in this field, though it would likely mean being able to beat Gomez and Fremont Christian in the quarterfinals, which is a tall task when the junior is on the mound. That being said, the Owls boast a staff ERA of 1.54, led by senior Devin Dhaliwal and junior Bryan Tierney. Having a solid one-two punch is key in these playoffs, so keep an eye on Athenian.
PREDICTED CHAMPION: Branson
DIVISION VI (bracket)
TOP FOUR SEEDS: South Fork, Waldorf-SF, Credo, Laytonville
OVERVIEW: After notching a .500 record against larger schools in the HDN, plus sweeping the season series from Laytonville, South Fork was rewarded with the top seed. Multi-sport standouts Scott Coffelt and CJ Van Meter lead the Cubs both at the plate and on the mound. Van Meter is batting .481 and sports a 5-3 record with opponents batting just .148 against him. Coffelt is hitting .475 with two home runs, and has a 0.14 ERA on the mound.
Two seed Waldorf is the regular season champion from the BCL-Central, led at the plate by Myles Stearns, who is hitting .507 with two home runs and 40 RBI. Meanwhile, Gabriel Wong is 6-0 on the mound and also leads the team with three home runs.
Credo posted a winning record in the NCL-II, and features four starters hitting over .400, led by Claude Pepe’s .490 batting average. Meanwhile, Kyle Conway is batting .487 with a team-high 16 stolen bases.
Laytonville just captured the NCL-III title with a 5-4 win over Point Arena on May 17, and the reward is another date between the two teams who split a doubleheader in late March. Laytonville sophomore Liam Maizner has been a leader at the plate, hitting .467 with 17 RBI, while Point Arena has the big bat of Jared Sundstrom, who is batting .550 with four home runs.
SLEEPER TEAM: After suffering two different three-game losing streaks, San Domenico has won four straight heading into the playoffs, including victories over Waldorf and Drew in the BCL tournament. This past basketball season, the Panthers won a playoff game in their first-ever varsity season. After winning just two games in their first varsity baseball season last spring, San Domenico could be a legitimate threat to bring home a section title.
PREDICTED CHAMPION: South Fork
