Baseball America taps Harvard-Westlake (CA) as the nation's top high school team

by Jeff Fisher
NHSCA Sports Hour Host
Follow @NHSCASportsHour

Harvard-Westlake after CIF-SS HW.com

Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, CA) has been crowned the "mythical" national champs by Baseball America.  At the end of May, the Wolverines won the CIF-SS Division I championship to finish the year with a 28-4 record.

Here's a look at BA's final Top 25...






Ranking, School, City, State, Record, Previous Ranking

1	Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif.	28-4	1
2	Venice (Fla.) HS	28-3	2
3	The Woodlands (Texas) HS	38-4	3
4	Owasso (Okla.) HS	36-0	4
5	Pensacola (Fla.) Catholic HS	30-0	5
6	St. Francis HS, Mountain View, Calif.	30-4	6
7	Lexington (S.C.) HS	28-3	7
8	Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego	30-5	8
9	Tomball (Texas) HS	35-5	9
10	Coronado HS, Las Vegas	36-4	10
11	Desert Mountain HS, Scottsdale, Ariz.	31-4	11
12	Lake Brantley HS, Altamonte Springs, Fla.	27-5	12
13	Oaks Christian HS, Westlake Village, Calif.	29-3	13
14	Archbishop McCarthy HS, Southwest Ranches, Fla.	27-3	14
15	Cypress (Calif.) HS	26-8	15
16	Dulles HS, Sugar Land, Texas	32-8	16
17	Mater Dei HS, Santa Ana, Calif.	24-3	17
18	Martin HS, Arlington, Texas	36-8	18
19	Carroll HS, Southlake, Texas	34-6	19
20	Milton (Ga.) HS	29-9	20
21	Pope HS, Marietta, Ga.	28-11	21
22	Thunder Ridge HS, Highlands Ranch, Colo.	21-5	22
23	Christian Brothers HS, Memphis	36-8	23
24	Howell HS, St. Charles, Mo.	35-5	24
25	Archbishop Moeller HS, Cincinnati	32-2	25

Cathedral Catholic (CA) moves up to #1 in Baseball America Top 25

by Jeff Fisher
NHSCA Sports Hour Host
Follow @NHSCAradioshow

No surprise that the first in-season Baseball America Top 25 rankings have a lot of shuffling going-on since the preseason poll was released in mid-February.  In fact, only one team held-on to its preseason spot.

There's a new #1 as preseason top dog Parkview (Georgia) lost its first game, which allowed preseason #3 Cathedral Catholic out of San Diego to move-up to the top perch.  Parkview falls to #2.  In all three teams dropped-out of the Top 25, allowing three new teams in.

Below is the latest rankings with preseason rankings all the way to the right.

1	Cathedral Catholic HS, San Diego	2-0	3
2	Parkview HS, Lilburn, Ga.	2-1	1
3	The Woodlands (Texas) HS	13-0	10
4	American Heritage HS, Plantation, Fla.	9-1	6
5	Venice (Fla.) HS	7-1	11
6	Carroll HS, Southlake, Texas	13-2	7
7	Spruce Creek HS, Port Orange, Fla.	7-2	4
8	Campolindo HS, Moraga, Calif.	1-2	2
9	Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego	2-0	12
10	Jenks (Okla.) HS	4-0	13
11	Mater Dei HS, Santa Ana, Calif.	1-1	8
12	Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif.	6-0	16
13	Grayson HS, Loganville, Ga.	4-2	9
14	Dulles HS, Sugar Land, Texas	10-3	5
15	Loganville (Ga.) HS	5-1	14
16	Jesuit HS, Tampa	10-0	23
17	Gainesville (Ga.) HS	5-0	19
18	Cherry Creek HS, Greenwood Village, Colo.	0-0	18
19	Hamilton HS, Chandler, Ariz.	6-1	21
20	Klein (Texas) HS	14-0	NR
21	St. Francis HS, Mountain View, Calif.	8-0	NR
22	Tullahoma (Tenn.) HS	0-0	22
23	Barbe HS, Lake Charles, La.	9-3	15
24	Coronado HS, Henderson, Nev.	3-0	25
25	Archbishop McCarthy HS, Southwest Ranches, Fla.	9-0	NR
Dropped out: No. 17 Cypress (Texas) Woods HS; No. 20 Orange (Calif.) Lutheran HS; No. 24 North Florida Christian HS, Tallahassee, Fla.

Baseball America's Preseason Top 25 High School Baseball Rankings

by Jeff Fisher
NHSCA Sports Hour Host
Follow @NHSCAradioshow

Baseball America has released it's preseason Top 25 high school baseball rankings. 

Defending national champ Parkview High School in Georgia gets the nod as the top team heading into the 2013 season.

1	Parkview HS, Lilburn, Ga.	31-6 (1)
2	Campolindo HS, Moraga, Calif.	23-4 (6)
3	Cathedral Catholic HS, San Diego	30-5 (NR)
4	Spruce Creek HS, Port Orange, Fla.	28-4 (8)
5	Dulles HS, Sugar Land, Texas	27-8 (NR)
6	American Heritage HS, Plantation, Fla.	27-4 (4)
7	Carroll HS, Southlake, Texas	25-13 (NR)
8	Mater Dei HS, Santa Ana, Calif.	24-6 (17)
9	Grayson HS, Loganville, Ga.	27-9 (NR)
10	The Woodlands (Texas) HS	24-8 (NR)
11	Venice (Fla.) HS	24-8 (25)
12	Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego	23-10 (NR)
13	Jenks (Okla.) HS	24-18 (NR)
14	Loganville (Ga.) HS	31-9 (23)
15	Barbe HS, Lake Charles, La.	35-6 (14)
16	Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif.	24-5 (26)
17	Cypress (Texas) Woods HS	21-9 (NR)
18	Cherry Creek HS, Greenwood Village, Colo.	24-3 (27)
19	Gainesville (Ga.) HS	32-2 (49)
20	Orange (Calif.) Lutheran HS	23-5 (16)
21	Hamilton HS, Chandler, Ariz.	23-9 (NR)
22	Tullahoma (Tenn.) HS	27-13 (NR)
23	Jesuit HS, Tampa	28-2 (11)
24	North Florida Christian HS, Tallahassee, Fla.	17-10 (NR)
25	Coronado HS, Henderson, Nev.	29-10 (NR)

Broken Arrow Tigers Baseball Coach on Sunday's NHSCA Sports Hour

by Jeff Fisher
Host, NHSCA Sports Hour

Broken Arrow (Oklahoma) head baseball coach Shannon Dobson will join Trish Hoffman and me on the June 5th NHCSA Sports Hour.

In mid-May Dobson's Tigers (36-2) won their second state baseball championship by beating Owasso 4-0.  Coming into the game, Owasso was ranked #1 in the country by Baseball America and riding a 33-game win streak.  The Rams were also going after their 9th title in 14 years.

Broken Arrow captured the title behind the strong right-arm of Archie Bradley, who is considered a possible first-round pick in next month's Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.  The 6-4 Bradley, who throws in the mid-90's threw a two-hitter with 14 strikeouts.

Click here to read the game summary from May 15th from Tulsa World Sports Reporter Mike Brown.

Here's a look at the latest Baseball America Top 10 through May 24th.

Baseball America Top 10

1. Edison (CA) 24-3
2. Spanish Fork (UT) 24-2
3. Archbishop McCarthy (FL) 27-3
4. Broken Arrow (OK) 37-2
5. Don Bosco Prep (NJ) 22-0
6. JSerra Catholic (CA) 24-4
7. Carroll (TX) 31-6
8. Marist (GA) 29-3
9. Clements (TX) 33-3
10. Buchanan (CA) 28-2

Click here for the entire Top 25.

Keeping-up with previous NHSCA Sports Hour guests/teams....

Carroll (Corpus Christi, Texas) Lee Yeager (February 27th show) - The Tigers are still alive in the Texas high school baseball playoffs.  Carroll, ranked #6 by Baseball America and the defending Texas 5A champs, will play Laredo in the Region IV-5A best of three series starting Thursday.

Gardner-Edgerton (Kansas) Bubba Starling (April 3rd show) - The kid who many believe is the best athlete in Kansas history closed out his high school career with a loss in the Class 5A regionals.  Many expect Starling, who's accepted a football scholarship to Nebraska to be picked in the Top 5 in baseball's amateur draft.


Maxwell (California), Eric Lay (May 1st show) - Won the CIF Northern Section Division V championship with a perfect 30-0 record.  Pitchers Steven Perry and Tyler Wells continued their incredible performance ending the season with a combined 11 no-hitters.  Both pitchers finished the season with perfect 0.00 ERAs.  Maxwell will take a 46-game win streak into next season.

Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Tim Hopley (April 17th show) - The Clippers have pushed their national record win streak to 79 straight.  The three-time defending Division II champs will begin the journey for a four-peat when they open the post-season on June 2nd.


St. Francis (Mountain View, California) Mike Oakland (March 20th show) - The former #1 team in the nation and top-seed in the Central Coast Section playoffs lost in the opening round.  St. Francis' season ended with a loss to 16th seed Carlmont.

Click here for a list of past shows

Baseball America's New #1 High School Team to be Featured on March 20th NHSCA Sports Hour

by Jeff Fisher
Host, NHSCA Sports Hour

St. Francis High School (Mount View, CA) baseball coach Mike Oakland will join us on Sunday's NHSCA Sports Hour at 6 PM EST.

The Lancers are the new #1 team in Baseball America's latest Top 25 poll.  The northern California school began the season ranked third in the nation in BA's pre-season poll.

St. Francis is off to a 9-0 start and features seven players who have signed to play Division I baseball next year.

Back on February 27th,we spoke with Lee Yeager, head coach of Carroll High School (Corpus Christi, TX), who's team was ranked #1 in BA's pre-season poll.  The Tigers have lost four games to top teams, and fall to #4 in the latest rankings.

Here's the latest Baseball America rankings through March 12th...

1. St. Francis (CA) 8-0, LW: #3
2. Farragut (TN) 0-0, LW: #2
3. Jesuit (FL) 7-2, LW: #4
4. Carroll (TX) 10-4, LW: #1
5. Edison (CA) 5-0, LW: #23
6. Archbishop McCarthy (FL) 9-2, LW: #7
7. Klein-Collins (TX) 12-4, LW: #5
8. Bishop Gorman (NV) 0-0, LW: #10
9. Owasso (FL) 4-1, LW: #9
10. JSerra Catholic (CA) 5-0, LW: NR
11. Gulliver Pre (FL)  9-2, LW: #15
12. Broken Arrow (OK) 5-0, LW: #17
13. Rockwall-Heath (TX) 12-2, LW: #18
14. Don Bosco Prep (NJ) 0-0, LW: #14
15. Spanish Fork (UT) 2-0, LW: #30
16. Archbishop Mitty (CA) 3-1, LW: #16
17. Mission Viejo (CA) 2-3, LW: #6
18. Ardrey Kell (NC) 6-0, LW: #36
19. West Boca (FL) 6-1, LW: #20
20. Hamilton (AZ) 8-2, LW: #12
21. Mountain Pointe (AZ) 4-2, LW: #6
22. Clovis West (CA) 7-0, LW: NR
23. Catholic (LA) 9-1, LW #22
24. Clements (TX) 11-0, LW: NR
25. Pinnacle (AZ) 9-0, LW: NR

Click here to listen to the show on March 23rd.

Baseball America Pre-Season Rankings

by Jeff Fisher
Host, NHSCA Sports Hour

Excited to talk with Lee Yeager of Carroll High School in Corpus Christi, Texas on tomorrow's NHSCA Sports Hour.

Last year Carroll won its first-ever Texas baseball championship.  The 5A champs are off to a bit of a slow start after going 1-3 over the last three days in the Woodlands Tournament.  However, with eight  starters returning from last season, the Tigers may have a shot at becoming the first Texas team since 2002 (Elkins HS) to win back-to-back state titles.

In order to get his team focused and not paying attention to being ranked #1 by Baseball America in its pre-season poll, Yeager has made the team put away all memorabilia from last year's championship run.

Here's a look at Baseball America's pre-season poll...

Baseball America
Pre-Season Poll

1. Carroll (TX) 38-7
2. Farragut (TN) 42-6
3. St. Francis (CA) 26-6
4. Jesuit (FL) 29-4
5. Klein-Collins (TX) 29-15
6. Mountain Point (AZ) 22-12
7. Archbishop McCarty (FL) 27-5
8. Mission Viejo (CA) 18-10
9. Owasso (OK) 32-7
10. Bishop Gorman (NV) 36-4
11. Chaminade College Prep (CA) 25-7
12. Hamilton (AZ) 28-5
13. Parkview (GA) 25-5
14. Don Bosco Prep (NJ) 18-3
15. Gulliver Prep (FL) 26-6
16. Archbishop Mitty (CA) 31-3
17. Broken Arrow (OK) 32-8
18. Rockwall-Heath (TX) 39-3
19. Bishop Amat (CA) 27-4
20. West Boca (FL) 26-6
21. Columbus (GA) 32-5
22. Catholic (LA) 33-7
23. Edison (CA) 18-9
24. Sumrall (MS) 36-1
25. Petal (MS) 30-4