st. john bosco

The Southern Section will hold nine baseball championship games this weekend, led by the Division 1 final at 7 p.m. Friday at Cal State Fullerton between St. John Bosco and Norco.

Here’s a look at top matchups:

FRIDAY

Division 1: St. John Bosco vs. Norco at Cal State Fullerton, 7 p.m. Both schools will have their top pitchers ready to go, which means runs will be at a premium. Julian Garcia of St. John Bosco was in the dugout last season when the Braves won the title but couldn’t play as he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He’s come back with a flourish, going 8-1 with a 0.88 ERA. All the Braves’ key pitchers are available, including closers Jack Champlin and Brayden Krakowski. Norco will start Jordan Ayala, who shut out Orange Lutheran in the quarterfinals. It’s going to come down to defense and someone getting a clutch hit against very good pitching.

SATURDAY

Division 2: Ganesha vs. Loyola at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, 5:30 p.m.: Likely first-round draft pick Logan Schmidt will be on the mound for Ganesha, offering a huge challenge for the Cubs. He’s also the team’s top hitter. Loyola has faced top pitching all season in the Mission League and will have rising freshman Sheriff Hall on the mound. The Cubs also have players who can hit home runs, such as Jack Murray and Luca Marucci.

Division 3: Mira Costa vs. Agoura at Cal State Fullerton, 4 p.m.. Both schools have prom in the evening, so watch for players rushing to cars after the game. Mira Costa has somehow made it to the final despite losing its No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers to injury. Others have stepped forward, and the hitting attack has been good in the playoffs. Austin Olness hit a two-run home run in a 12-0 semifinal win over St. Francis. Agoura, under first-year coach Adam Goldstein, is another overachiever. Senior Tyler Starling hits and pitches with the best, but it’s been underclassmen pushing the Chargers toward a title.

Division 4: Glendora vs. Laguna Beach at Cal State Fullerton, 7:30 p.m. Senior Tanner Grable leads Glendora with 36 hits and four home runs and also can pitch. Junior Dylan Yencho is having a big season for Laguna Beach, batting .455 with 50 hits and an 0.94 ERA as a closer.

Division 5: Kaiser vs. Culver City at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, 11 a.m. Senior Tino Cuellar is Kaiser’s leadoff hitter with 34 hits. Culver City finished second to Santa Monica in the Ocean League and has a productive freshman in Matthew Riesenberg, who has 36 hits, a .431 batting average and 29 RBIs.

Division 6: Brentwood vs. Covina at Cal State Fullerton, 1 p.m. The Eagles won’t have ace Jack Kaplan available after he threw a shutout in the semifinals, but there’s plenty of hot hitters, including junior Hudson Chase, who has 42 hits and seven home runs. Covina, which knocked out Lakewood and longtime coach Spud O’Neil in the semifinals, was second in the Valle Vista League to Charter Oak. Senior Lucas Thorpe has been providing key hits all season, including four in the semifinals.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Ranked No. 1 in preseason, St. John Bosco’s baseball team suffered some surprising losses during the National High School Invitational and Boras Classic, losing three straight at one point.

“The little bump in the road was our last opportunities to get guys in there for non-Trinity League games to see what they could do,” coach Andy Rojo said.

The computer rankings didn’t appreciate St. John Bosco’s experimentation. The Braves closed the regular season with 11 straight wins and a Trinity League title, but were punished when the Southern Section Division 1 playoff pairings came out Friday. Orange Lutheran, second place to the Braves, was given a No. 4 seed ahead of No. 6 St. John Bosco.

The disrespect will only add to the motivation for the defending Division 1 champions. St. John Bosco finished the regular season 22-5 and 14-1 in the Trinity League.

It’s another lesson in this new era of relying on computer algorithms for playoff pairings. The people running the computers won’t release their secrets about how teams are really ranked. It’s locked up like the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Two things are certain for all computer rankings: Head-to-head matchups are really not important and league finish doesn’t matter. Those are two criteria that used to be among the most important in the days when humans put together pairings, so you can understand why old-timers are having a hard time adjusting.

“We feel good,” Rojo said.

And he should. For Southern Section Division 1 baseball, it really doesn’t matter where you are ranked. The 16 teams are so good that everyone is set to go through a gauntlet and may the best team rise to the top.

Orange Lutheran is seeded No. 4 in the Division 1 baseball playoffs.

(Nick Koza)

St. John Bosco opens the playoffs on Tuesday in pool C facing probably the best opening opponent in Crestview League champion Cypress. St. John Bosco has ace Julian Garcia ready to go, but Cypress has multiple pitchers ready to compete. Sierra Canyon is the highest seed in pool C and opens at home against Oaks Christian.

Big VIII League champion Norco received the No. 1 seed for the first 16-team pool play tournament in Division 1. There are four four-team pools with the chance to lose one game and not go home. The first- and second-place finishers in each pool will advance to the single elimination eight-team quarterfinals.

“I love the double elimination,” Rojo said. “If you have a bad day, you get to redeem yourself.”

The other eight divisions remain 32 teams and single elimination.

The Braves effectively managed pitches for Garcia all season in his return from arm surgery that forced him to miss all of 2025. He was even taken out with a no-hitter in the sixth inning against Mater Dei while sticking with 85 pitches to preserve him for the playoffs. He’s had a pitcher-of-the-year season with a 7-1 record, 0.72 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 48⅓ innings.

The big change for the 2026 playoffs for St. John Bosco from 2025 is that closer Jack Champlin will be the No. 2 starter. Sophomore Brayden Krakowski has shown he can be an effective closer. A major decision by Rojo was to shake up his batting order after the three-game losing streak. He switched Jaden Jackson and James Clark, with Jackson becoming the leadoff man and Clark batting second.

“They’re both thriving,” Rojo said.

And so is St. John Bosco, whether computer believes it or not.

St. John Bosco has lost 6-foot-8 McDonald’s All-American Christian Collins to graduation, but the Braves are getting another promising 6-8 player to replace him, incoming freshman Bryce Bible, who announced on Thursday he will enroll at the Bellflower campus.

Bible is the son of Bruce Bible, who works for Sierra Canyon’s football program. He also considered the Trailblazers and Long Beach Millikan.

Bryce is tall and lanky with the ability to score in many different ways.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.