A look at The Times\u2019 preseason top 25 baseball rankings for the Southland.<\/p>\n
Rk. School; Comment<\/p>\n
The Times\u2019 preseason top 25 high school rankings for the 2026 season:<\/p>\n
1. ST. JOHN BOSCO: The return of pitcher Julian Garcia from injury adds to a senior-laden team for defending Division 1 champions.<\/p>\n
2. ORANGE LUTHERAN: Full of talent, but it all comes down to finding two pitchers who will deliver complete games in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
3. HARVARD-WESTLAKE: Improved pitching, solid hitting and elite freshmen make the Wolverines title contenders.<\/p>\n
4. HUNTINGTON BEACH: With junior pitcher\/outfielder Jared Grindlinger leading the way, Oilers will once again make plenty of waves.<\/p>\n
5. CORONA: Outfielder Anthony Murphy, pitcher Mason Sims, shortstop Trey Ebel show the cupboard isn\u2019t bare.<\/p>\n
6. SHERMAN OAKS NOTRE DAME: The pitching depth is off the charts, now if only the hitters can come through.<\/p>\n
7. SANTA MARGARITA: Shortstop Brody Schumaker is the real deal and beware of sophomore pitcher Tyler George.<\/p>\n
8. ROYAL: There are 23 seniors, led by pitchers Dustin Dunwoody (Arizona commit), Dean Barkman (UCSB) and Colten Rainer (UCLA).<\/p>\n
9. CYPRESS: Terrific pitching depth gives coach John Weber lots of options for his annual tough schedule.<\/p>\n
10. SIERRA CANYON: Trailblazers have group of pitchers throwing 90 mph and elite freshman in Jordan Leon.<\/p>\n
11. ARCADIA: Damian Catano (St. Mary\u2019s) is a top pitcher and will have more mound help after leading the Apaches to the Division 1 playoffs last season.<\/p>\n
12. MATER DEI: Ezekiel Lara, Brady Guth, Owen Shannon are ready for big seasons<\/p>\n
13. AQUINAS: There\u2019s lots of hitters back, including Jonathan Tena, who had 36 hits and a .480 batting average.<\/p>\n
14. NORCO: There\u2019s lots of promising young players with experience ready to deliver even more this season.<\/p>\n
15. CORONA CENTENNIAL: Any team with Jaden Walk-Green being the disruptor in the outfield and at the plate is dangerous.<\/p>\n
16. LA MIRADA: Junior pitcher Luke Armijo is a Texas commit, so the Matadores will build their starting rotation around him.<\/p>\n
17. SOUTH HILLS: Junior shortstop Diego Villarreal was league MVP last season and should support a pitching staff that has depth.<\/p>\n
18. EL DORADO: As usual, the pitching will be good and it\u2019s a matter of execution to win the close games against top opponents.<\/p>\n
19. OAKS CHRISTIAN: Catcher Carson Sheffer is someone to watch as a future pro to watch his arm and power at the plate.<\/p>\n
20. JSERRA: If the young pitchers come through to support outfielder Blake Bowen & Co., Lions can surprise in Trinity League.<\/p>\n
21. LOYOLA: Freshman shortstop Brody Brooks is 6 feet 3, hero on El Segundo Little League team and ready to make immediate impact.<\/p>\n
22. AYALA: All you need to know is that pitcher Caleb Trugman is back for his senior season.<\/p>\n
23. BONITA: Outfielder Joaquin Covarrubias is a USC commit and pitcher Daniel Nageer showed promise last season with a 7-2 record.<\/p>\n
24. GAHR: The pitching duo of Jake Ourique (Oregon) and Bryce Morrison (USC) makes Gahr a team to watch.<\/p>\n
25. VILLA PARK: Top hitter Aidan Young as well as top pitchers Jack McGuire and Logan Hoppie return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A look at The Times\u2019 preseason top 25 baseball rankings for the Southland. Rk. School; Comment The Times\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[44308,8825,21172,44306,44305,29950,44303,44307,48,52,51,47,50,49,18158,44304,8841,15192,44302,1791,430],"class_list":{"0":"post-176496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-at-large-berth","9":"tag-boy","10":"tag-division","11":"tag-first-trinity-league-title","12":"tag-gold-coast-league","13":"tag-harvard-westlake","14":"tag-high-school-basketball-ranking","15":"tag-john-bosco","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-no","23":"tag-open-division-playoff","24":"tag-playoff","25":"tag-seed","26":"tag-st","27":"tag-times","28":"tag-week"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}