{"id":327702,"date":"2026-05-22T11:35:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/327702\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:35:22","slug":"cif-baseball-section-finals-sacramento-area-stars-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/327702\/","title":{"rendered":"CIF baseball section finals: Sacramento-area stars to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roseville<\/p>\n

Roseville Tigers pitcher Tyler Ritter throws against the East Union Lancers in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section baseball playoffs at Roseville High School on May 12. <\/p>\n

PAUL KITAGAKI JR.<\/p>\n

pkitagaki@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

The season started in the chill of February and ends in sectional play this week in warm conditions for Sacramento-area high school baseball teams.<\/p>\n

The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship games run Wednesday through Saturday at various sites.<\/p>\n

The finalists in Divisions I, II and III advance to CIF Northern California State tournaments. (There are no state finals in this sport \u2014 yet.) Only the section champions in Divisions IV, V, VI and VII will advance to a NorCal round.<\/p>\n

Division I<\/p>\n

Who: No. 1-seeded St. Mary\u2019s (26-6) vs. No. 3 Franklin (22-8-1)<\/p>\n

When: 6 p.m. Friday<\/p>\n

Where: Sacramento City College<\/p>\n

Outlook: The defending large-school section champion Wildcats of Elk Grove will play a St. Mary\u2019s of Stockton club that has looked the part of a juggernaut. Franklin is paced by 2025 Sacramento Bee Player of the Year Dylan Minnatee, the fourth-year starter and LSU-bound do-all star who is batting .404 and has a team-best 0.78 ERA. Ryan Cody is 9-1 on the mound and has been superb.<\/p>\n

\"The The Franklin High School Wildcats\u2019 Dylan Minnatee catches the ball on a throwback to first during the 2025 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I baseball championship at Sacramento City College against the St. Mary\u2019s Rams. BRIAN BAER Special to The Bee <\/p>\n

St. Mary\u2019s seeks its second title in three years and has a stout lineup that includes Hawaii-bound Ethan Silva and stellar pitching with Mississippi State-bound Dax Hardcastle (8-1, 0.64 ERA) and UCLA-committed Nico Bavaro (7-2, 1.58).<\/p>\n

Division II<\/p>\n

Who: No. 1 Elk Grove (26-6) vs. Rodriguez (24-7)<\/p>\n

When: 6 p.m. Thursday<\/p>\n

Where: Sacramento City College<\/p>\n

Outlook: The storied Thundering Herd seek their 12th section banner and first for coach Joe Bellotti, who was an assistant for earlier title teams. Elk Grove has leadership in fourth-year starting infielder Chase Groves, headed to Cal, and there is power in the bats of Brayden Ford, Hudson Hall and Landon Johnson to go with the steady hitting of sophomore Jayden Hernandez (.427, 30 RBIs).<\/p>\n

The Herd\u2019s stout pitching staff includes Anthony Bascherini (7-2, 1.88 ERA), Cooper Gannon (6-1, 2.40), Chase Dyer (5-2, 3.00) and Tristen Bartlett (six saves). Rodriguez of Fairfield in Solano County is paced by Pacific-bound Nick Schikore and Cal Poly-committed Justin Gregory.<\/p>\n

Division III<\/p>\n

Who: No. 1 Rio Americano (26-6) vs. El Capitan (25-7)<\/p>\n

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday<\/p>\n

Where: Sacramento City College<\/p>\n

Outlook: The Gauchos of Merced are riding a 14-game winning streak and face a Rio Americano club that has been to multiple section title games in recent years, seeking a breakthrough. Rio\u2019s 1-2 pitching punch of Joey Dormann and Pierce Tully and the infield defense and batting of Trey Howell-Chase have led to a banner season for coach Jason Landreth and staff.<\/p>\n

Dormann is 9-0 with an 0.65 ERA, and Tully is 6-1 with a 1.62 ERA. They both pitched 5-inning perfect games earlier in this tournament.<\/p>\n

Division IV<\/p>\n

Who: No. 1 Roseville (26-4) vs. No. 2 Central Catholic (24-7)<\/p>\n

When: 10 a.m. Saturday<\/p>\n

Where: Cosumnes River College<\/p>\n

Outlook: The defending champion Tigers of Placer County face a Central Catholic of Modesto club that features a potent lineup, and it\u2019ll take some heavy bats to rattle Roseville\u2019s aces. UC Davis-bound Tyler Ritter is 9-0 with a 0.65 ERA, and Vanderbilt-bound Ethan Gustus is 6-1 with a 1.52 ERA.<\/p>\n

\"Roseville Roseville Tigers pitcher Tyler Ritter throws against the East Union Lancers in the Sac-Joaquin Section baseball playoffs at Roseville High School on May 12. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Roseville\u2019s offense includes Benjamin Jordan (.427 average, 24 RBIs, 38 runs), Ashton Chang (.400), Jacob Welch (.400, 26 RBIs, 25 runs) and Justin Fischer (.341, nine doubles, 12 RBIs, 32 runs).<\/p>\n

Division V<\/p>\n

Who: No. 2 Woodland (26-5) vs. No. 5 Wheatland (23-8)<\/p>\n

When: 1 p.m. Saturday<\/p>\n

Where: Cosumnes River College<\/p>\n

Outlook: The storied Wolves of Yolo County are led by Cohen Dwyer (.531 average, 34 RBIs, 48 runs scored), Jesus Cosio (36 RBIs) and Riley Salvemini (32 RBIs, 43 runs scored). Salvemini is 8-2 with an 0.49 ERA.<\/p>\n

Wheatland of Yuba County is led by Kale Nakamura (.418 average, 29 RBIs, 29 runs scored), Hughston Rodney (.412, 33 RBIs, 31 runs) and Brodee Malecha (.412 and an 0.31 ERA). Chase Barton is 10-2 for Wheatland.<\/p>\n

Top-seeded Ripon Christian plays No. 2 Amador in the D-VI finals at 10 a.m. Saturday at Delta College in Stockton, followed by No. 1 Vacaville Christian and No. 2 Turlock Christian at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Full brackets and ticket information are available at the section website, cifsjs.org\/baseball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 5:00 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Davidson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Joe Davidson has covered sports for The Sacramento Bee since 1989: preps, colleges, Kings and features. He was in early 2024 named the National Sports Media Association Sports Writer of the Year for California and he was in the fall of 2024 inducted into the California High School Football Hall of Fame. He is a 14-time award winner from the California Prep Sports Writer Association. In 2021, he was honored with the CIF Distinguished Service award. He is a member of the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Davidson participated in football and track in Oregon.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roseville Tigers pitcher Tyler Ritter throws against the East Union Lancers in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section baseball playoffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-327702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327702","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=327702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}