May 13, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Half a dozen area baseball teams begin their journey through the CIF-Southern Section divisional playoffs with three playing their first round games on May 15 and the other three on Friday. La Mirada High is the lone league champion but fellow Gateway League rival Gahr High and Cerritos High have each grabbed one of the four seeded positions.
GAMES SCHEDULED FOR MAY 15
DIVISION 1
Los Alamitos High (17-9-2) @ La Mirada (21-6)-Even though Los Alamitos is one of five teams in the bracket to finish in third place in their respective league, this is still the toughest division around. Five of the 32 teams received byes and won’t play until Tuesday.
La Mirada began the season with 14 wins in its first 16 games, both losses coming against top-seeded Corona High. The other four losses came to Gahr, Venice (FL) High and Wesleyan Christian Academy out of Brooklyn, NY.
Senior right fielder Kevin Jeon leads the team with a .419 batting average, 31 hits, 26 runs and six home runs while six other players are batting over .300. Only Jeon and senior third baseman Maverek Russell played in all 27 games. If the offense doesn’t beat you, then the deep pitching staff will. With the combination of returning players and transfers who weren’t eligible until the end of March, the Matadores had seven different starters. Part of that can be attributed to the team having four straight weeks of playing four games in each of those weeks. Basically, La Mirada played 16 games from Mar. 25-Apr. 19.
Junior Jacob Oropeza is 5-0 with a 1.35 earned run average, while senior Donald Murray is 4-0 in eight games played. Sophomore Luke Armijo leads the team in innings pitched with 32 and has 28 strikeout,s while junior Kaden Corns has 32 strikeouts in 29 innings pitched.
Of the nine losses Los Alamitos has, eight came in Sunset League play, The Griffins limp into the postseason having lost six of their last eight games which followed a four-game winning streak. Wyatt Joyce (.378, 28 hits, 22 runs batted in) and Tyler Smith (.373 average, 28 hits and 18 RBI) lead the Griffins in the offensive department. Los Alamitos shutout the Matadores 2-0 in 2023 and has outscored La Mirada 11-4 in the past five meetings.
The winner plays either Orange Lutheran High or Rancho Cucamonga High on Tuesday and while the Matadores haven’t played either team this season, they fell to Orange Lutheran twice last season.
DIVISION 7
Artesia High (17-8-1) @ Viewpoint High (13-9)-Artesia is in the playoffs for the fourth straight season and all four times, the Pioneers finished in third place in the 605 League. The team began the season strong, winning five of its first six games and eight of the first 10.
The pitching staff allowed two runs or fewer in 11 of the 17 wins and three runs in three other victories. Offensively, Artesia has scored in double digits three times, but none in the past 13 games.
Viewpoint finished in a tie for fourth place in the five-team Gold Coast League and is one of four at-large teams in the division. The Patriots won four of 12 league games and at one point in the season, won 10 straight games after a five-game skid and before four consecutive losses.
The winner will play either second-seeded Cornerstone Christian High out of Wildomar or Schurr High on Tuesday.
West Valley High (14-14) @ Norwalk High (15-8)-On the other side of the bracket is a revamped Norwalk squad that went 11-4 in the Mid-Cities League and is back in the playoffs following a not so memorable 2024 season in the Gateway League. The Lancers ended the season with four straight shutouts, two from junior pitcher Daniel Albidrez and one each from senior Cesar Urueta and sophomore David Ibarra. Before that, Norwalk had three straight games in which it allowed a run.
Another at-large team from the division is West Valley, which finished in fourth place in the five-team Mountain Pass League with a 3-9 record, four games back of Tahquitz High. The Mustangs won six straight games to go to 12-6 but then lost five straight and eventually concluded the regular season on a three-game losing streak. Of the 16 players who had at least one at-bat, 10 of them have at least 10 hits.
The winner will play either Oxford Academy or Western Christian High on Tuesday.
GAMES SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY
DIVISION 2
La Salle High (17-9) @ #4 Gahr (16-12)-It was a struggle at the beginning of the season for the Gladiators, who lost their first six games and scored five runs in those contests. But the second place team from the Gateway League, which took two of three from La Mirada, won 10 of its last 15 games while playing one of the toughest non-league schedules around.
The heart and soul of the team lies with senior pitcher Noah Irwin and junior pitcher Jake Ourique. The two have combined for the only five complete games the team has and Irwin’s lone loss in seven decisions came last Wednesday in a 13-6 setback to Huntington Beach. In fact, Irwin had three straight shutouts from Apr. 18-30.
Senior outfielder Taison Miller, junior infielder Andres Gonzalez, junior catcher Nate Guangorena and junior first baseman Bryce Morrison are the offensive stars.
La Salle, the second place team out of the Del Rey League, has split its last eight games of the regular season. The Lancers finished four games behind Bishop Amat and took one of three games from the Del Rey League champions. Five players have over 20 hits, led by Travis Ochoa’s 27 and 24 each from Chris Cardenas and Frane Flores.
The winner will face either Etiwanda High or Notre Dame High/Sherman Oaks on Tuesday.
DIVISION 4
Valley Christian High (15-10) @ #1 Woodbridge High (19-9)-V.C. is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2021 when that team finished 18-6 and was bounced in the first round. That team also finished in second place in the Olympic League, just like the 2025 squad which went 6-2, both losses coming to league champions Maranatha High.
At one point, V.C. was sitting at 4-7 but has turned it around the second half of the season and enters the playoffs winners of seven of its last eight games and 11 of the last 14 contests.
When talking about the Defenders, the first thing that comes to mind is the pitching tandem of senior lefty Riley Jones and junior right-hander Josh Hulse. Other than Village Christian High and one of the three games against Maranatha, the rest of the league didn’t see any other V.C. hurler because Jones went the distance in four league games and Hulse pitched two complete games in league action. Overall, Jones has seven complete games and Hulse four. Jones went 9-2 with an ERA of 0.91, 103 strikeouts, 15 walks and four shutouts.
Offensively, senior first baseman Seth Dahlenburg is batting .370 with 30 hits and 24 RBI while juniors R.J. Estrada and Lucas Witt are both hitting at least .325, 26 hits and 17 RBI.
The task at hand is upsetting the division’s top-ranked team, which finished in a tie for third place with Northwood High in the Pacific Coast League with an 8-6 mark. They have won five of their last seven games. Nevan Namgoong leads the Warriors with a .430 average, 43 hits and 30 runs while Vincent DeMarco has nine victories in 10 decisions with a microscopic ERA of .012 and 95 strikeouts in just over 56 innings.
The winner will play either Irvine High, the second place team from the Pacific Coast League, or St. Bernard High.
DIVISION 6
Banning High (17-3) @ #3 Cerritos High (14-13)-This has not been one of the finest seasons for the Dons, who did not win a 605 League title since its inception in 2019. They were swept by Oxford Academy in the second to the last week of the regular season and fell to John Glenn High on Apr. 11. Cerritos has had a bumpy season with winning streaks of seven and three games and losing skids of three and five games. On top of that, the team has not been four games above .500.
The team is batting in the mid .360;s but seniors Dalton Chi and Braxton Reed are swinging the hot bats with the former checking in with a .453 average, 29 hits and 25 RBI and the latter batting .369 with 31 hits and 28 runs scored. Seven different pitchers have had a decision with junior Frank Melendrez the leader with a 4-4 record, 49 strikeouts and a pair of saves.
The Broncos are making the trip from the Inland Empire as winners of all 12 Sun Valley League games by a combined score of 160-16. They won the league by six games over Cathedral City High. Two Banning’s three losses came within the first three games with the other one coming on May 6 at Arrowhead Christian High (4-0).
The winner will play either Leuzinger High or Marshall High on Tuesday,
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.