A late December forecast of a competitive WBAL season was on the money. While Pinewood didn’t give up its throne entirely, it had to make room on it for upstart Crystal Springs. The two were co-champs at 9-1. Menlo, Priory and ND Belmont shared third at 4-6 and Harker trailed the field.

The WBAL’s all-league honors suggest terrific things are in store next year. Pinewood senior Ava Uhrich was an extremely deserving player of the year. Remarkably, everyone else on the first and second teams will be back.

Besides Uhrich, the first team has two juniors (Pinewood’s Alex Facelo and Crystal’s Jemma Lacap), three sophomores (Menlo’s Ruiqi Liu and Karen Xin, and Pinewood’s Jolyn Ding) and a freshman (Priory’s Ugreat Daniels). The second team is two juniors (Crystal’s Maile Bateman and Raelyn De la Cruz), two sophs (Harker’s Izzy Lo and ND Belmont’s Sophia Kwan) and three freshmen (Addy Chan from Priory, Caitlyn Kramer from Crystal and Lita Fakapalea from Pinewood).

At a glance, with four returning all leaguers, Crystal should be tough to be beat. But Pinewood returns three (as well as an honorable mention) and will add three talented transfers who sat out the entire year. Menlo’s pair of first teamers took them all the way to the D4 Norcal finals. And the top squad may actually be Priory who will welcome back 6’2 senior Carmela Fontes from an injury. Should be another fun one.

Congrats to all of the honorees and their teams on a memorable year.

Scotts Valley (2-2) beat Leigh (2-3) 4-1: Quinn Turowski had two RBI and Colin Melrose threw a one hit, complete game with eight strikeouts.

Serra (4-0) beat Bishop O'Dowd (0-4) 10-1: Serra got home runs from Jake Downing and Jim O'Brien and five shutout innings from Samuel Kretsch to keep the Padres undefeated. Siraj Shabazz had a home run in the loss.

Valley Christian (5-1) beat Elk Grove (3-1) 7-1: Alec Belardes and Michael Castaneda combined on a three hitter for the Warriors, which also got a pair of hits from Castaneda and Jacob Hudson.

Cardinal Newman (3-0) beat Granada (3-1) 4-3: Nate Niehaus went 2-for-3 with two triples and three RBI for the Cardinals, which got four innings of good relief from Tanner Bradley. Granada started Josh Morano, who struck out nine batters over 5.2 innings in giving up four runs (one earned).

De La Salle (3-0) beat Woodcreek (1-1): Jack Hershey threw five innings with nine strikeouts and Jack Karst tossed the final two perfect innings with four strikeouts in a Top 20 matchup. Hank Tripaldi reached base three times with two RBI. Austin Nye started the game for Woodcreek and kept it scoreless through three innings before giving up four runs and exiting in the fourth inning.

Acalanes (4-2) beat Foothill Pleasanton (4-1) 3-0: Henry Souza tossed five shutout innings for Acalanes in defeating the Falcons, which got five innings of three run ball from Tyler Gebb. Acalanes' Andrew Habas went 2-for-3 with a double and a RBI.

Branson (6-2) beat Marin Catholic (6-1) 4-3: Morris Jacob went 3-for-4 with two RBI for Branson in handing Marin Catholic its first loss. Jayden Lee had two doubles and Carl Schmidt had a triple in the loss.

Franklin Elk Grove (4-0) beat Whitney (2-1) 8-1: The Wildcats got two RBI apiece from Jordan Lopez, Jason Harris and Noah Meaux. Nic Abraham threw a complete game, six hitter. Jax Gimenez went 2-for-4 with a triple for Whitney.

Rocklin (1-3) beat Roseville (1-2): Cameron Castor and Troy Ueltzen each had a home run for the Thunder, which got 11 strikeouts form five different pitchers.

any list available of 2023 commits Northern CA

Golden State Prep (Post Grad/Gap Year) is opening its application process for the 2023-2024 season. Golden State Prep just finished its fifth year of existence and is the Post Grad/Gap year Program for Prolific Prep. This past year, GSP made it to the Final 4 of the National Championships in South Carolina, concluding its most successful season to date. Currently, GSP has 6 players with D1 offers and more to come at the D2,NAIA, D3 Level. GSP, is one of the very few gap year programs that plays a true national schedule with proven results helping kids get to college, while allowing them a year to grow without their NCAA eligibility clock starting .

Current GSP athletes in the NCAA Tournament include:

Emanuel Miller (TCU)
Darrion Trammel (San Diego State)
Chance McMillan (GCU)
Daniel Foster (Nevada)
David Idada (SEMO)
Ariel Bland (UC Santa Barbara)

Please visit the website below for more info. Any questions, please email GoldenStatePrepBball@gmail.com

Light day due to the rain, which will wash out today's games too. Still wanted to highlight these two games from Monday.

Santa Cruz (1-1) beat Wilcox (3-5) 9-3: Oscar Knapp went 3-for-3 with three RBI and Emmet Desmond and Damos Deworken each had two RBI for Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz scored six runs in the top of the eighth to pick up the win.

Davis (2-2) beat Jesuit (1-2-1) 6-0: Brian Chin threw five shutout innings with four strikeouts and Bryson Schelp struck out each batter in his inning of work. At the plate, John Churchward went 2-for-4 with two RBI.

Here we go, two Top 10 in the USA teams!

Boys game ran a bit long, they are warming up now.

That girls game is a hard act to follow, but these two teams can sure do it…

HW knocked off defending champ Centennial to get here, and SJ took down defending NorCal champ Modesto Christian.

Tounde Yessoufou is a total stud for SJ, a 6-6 SOPHOMORE who may be the best soph in the USA.

No stats on MaxPreps for HA, but if that roster is correct, they are just plain gigantic…. a whole bunch of guys listed at 6’8”.

Northern California Regional Juco Playoff bracket

https://cccmbca.org/sports/mbkb/2022-23/files/2023_NorCal_Regional_Bracket.pdf

NFHS is showing the game delayed. Is it actually delayed or is this another NFHS issue? Anyone there?

North Bay Basketball Academy’s (NBBA) final tryout for UA Rise Circuit and West Coast Showcase teams takes place Sunday, March 12th. We are looking for a few positions to fill.

15U, !6U, 17U*
11:00am - 12:30pm @ San Marin HS
*Unsigned Seniors welcomed

For more information and a tryout invite, please contact Tony Butler, tonyb@northbaybasketballacademy.com, or Zach Borello, zach@northbaybasketballacademy.com.

D2 title on the line, next…

Fresno’s Talia Maxwell is putting up 24ppg, she should be one to watch.

I’ll start this conversation in saying when you talk about TOP coaches in the area and state.

LeRoy Hurt’s name should not be left off.

Half Moon Bay’s Cougars from the Coastside and Cameron’s (The Disneyland Of Pubs!) rep the North…

Valencia’s the bad guys from the South.

Gettin ready to rumble…

Open
Mitty vs. Etiwanda

D1
Oakland Tech vs. Santiago

D2
Central vs. Bonita Vista

D3
Colfax vs. Los Osos

D4
San Domenico vs. Shalhevet

D5
Bret Harte vs. Marina

Looks like a great lineup of games but to be honest, don't now much about the Socal teams aside from Etiwanda and Santiago. Good luck this weekend!

Interesting matchup here…

Santiago is ranked higher by MaxPreps, has a higher strength-of-schedule rating…

But these two met back in December, and Tech won 62-57.

ND, with three major D1 commits, has to be a double-digit favorite here…

McKeever and Harris will have to be unbelievable to even have a shot on this one…

But ya never know til they toss the ball up…

I just wanted to say, marking today 3/6/2023, I understand now the kids and their families that make moves, endless camps, endless aau whatevers, transfer 4 times in 4 years, reclassify, leave schools to go to a prep school in the middle of nowhere.... ALL OF THAT.... I UNDERSTAND NOW......

Because on this day, a dude like GENO SMITH is going to get $52M guaranteed next season to play QB for the Seattle Seahawks. GENO EFFING SMITH. FIFTY-TWO MILLION FOR ONE SEASON!!!! God is truly great. Bless Geno Smith. So the folks out there that question, why the kid did this? The answer is GENO SMITH. Thats why.

Should be a good matchup…

D5: Lynwood, probably by 30 or more.

(Usually, NorCal wins a lot of the lower-division games, this year I doubt it, at least on the boys side…)

D3: This one is tough to call. Neither team has a bunch of size, maybe a slight edge to Buena if any at all…. Just a hunch, I’ll pick Oakland anyway, 65-62.

D1: Granada’s been playing terrific lately, McKeever has dominated in the playoffs, but I think Notre Dame and its three Power 5 commits has too much firepower. ND wins 71-52.

This looks like a good matchup.

Colfax is 34-2, Los Osos 28-5…. Los Osos’ schedule strength is slightly higher, 14 vs 8.

Sierra faces Lynwood.

Sierra will need the game of their lives to stay close, IMHO…

Lynwood and their four freshman starters are probably the heaviest favorites of the weekend.

Really looking forward to seeing Jason Crowe, 36ppg scorer…

Does Serra pitcher Sam Kretsch still play football?

Shalhevet v San Domenico

Domenico won last year, who’ll getit this year?