Power rankings held up during CIF San Diego Section baseball, softball playoffs
How high school playoffs are seeded has long been debated.
What’s more fair, the MaxPreps.com rankings or the CIF power rankings?
What works best, predetermined divisions or ranking teams No. 1 through 64 at the end of the season?
The San Diego Section used power rankings this spring for baseball and softball.
Research from Robert Harutunian shows it worked pretty well.
Two of the seven CIF San Diego baseball champions were No. 1 seeds - Coastal Academy in Division 5 and Borrego Springs in Division 5-AA. A third No. 1 seed, Christian, advanced to the Division 2 final before losing to No. 3 Helix.
Third-seeded Eastlake and No. 5 Patrick Henry advanced to the Open Division title game. Likewise, No. 3 Madison played No. 5 Mt. Carmel in Division 1.
In softball, three No. 1 seeds won championships - Mater Dei Catholic in the Open Division, Carlsbad in Division 2 and Madison in Division 4. Three more top seeds made the championship game: Brawley (Division 3), La Jolla (Division 5) and Warner (Division 5-AA).
School spirit
Thursday at San Diego State, the Borrego Springs baseball and softball teams won Division 5-AA championships within 15 minutes of each other.
The baseball team beat Calvin Christian 7-1, then hurried across the plaza at SDSU - about 50 yards - to cheer the girls on.
Why Division 5-AA?
There is talk that Division 5-AA should be absorbed into Division 5. The argument against that is the size of the school.
Borrego Springs has an enrollment of 108. Calvin Christian’s enrollment is 97. Warner, the other team in the softball final, has an enrollment of 113. In Division 5, Coastal Academy has an enrollment of 86, Canyon Hills 1,160, La Jolla 1,145 and Monte Vista 1,653.
Where is the long ball?
In the seven CIF championship baseball games - two at San Diego State and five at USD - teams hit two total home runs.
Jake Musicant of Francis Parker hit an inside-the-park homer at SDSU against Foothills Christian.
Ramona’s Justin Jarrett homered over the left-field fence in the Division 3 game against Westview at USD. There were some drives in other games to the warning track, but nothing close to a homer.
Odd finishes
Two baseball games ended with double plays.
In the Division 5-AA game, with one out and runners on first and second, Taylor Burrell of Foothills Christian hit a high one-hopper that brought Borrego Springs shortstop Noah Kisch to the second base bag. Kisch fielded the ball, tagged the runner on second, who retreated to the bag, then tagged the bag to force the runner on first and end the game.
In the Open Division, Eastlake trailed 7-6 and had runners on second and third. Zowen Watson hit a liner to left that was caught by Jeremiah Stepner. Stepner then threw to second to double off the runner, who had strayed too far off the bag.
Crowd control
The Open Division championship games in baseball and softball drew packed crowds.
Officials estimated the baseball at 2,100 fans - 400 more than the stated capacity at USD’s Fowler Park.
At UC San Diego’s 750-seat softball stadium, the stands were packed for the Open Division championship.
Hat tip to CIF
In postgame championship celebrations, the San Diego Section office gives the winning team a cardboard bracket of the division's playoff run. Then a player is invited to slap the winning school's name via a sticker on the bracket's championship line.
Teams go bonkers when the player pounds their school name on the bracket.
Top 10 shakeups
The final softball Top 10 poll underwent a seismic shift after the playoffs.
Five teams that finished in the top 10 were not ranked in the previous poll that came out May 18, the day before the playoffs started. The five that vaulted were Steele Canyon (tied for fourth), Del Norte (tied for seventh), Torrey Pines (tied for seventh), Westview (ninth) and Helix (10th).
Steele Canyon received only one vote, that one for 10th, in the next-to-last poll. The Cougars then went on a heater, winning four straight in the Division 1 playoffs.
Torrey Pines, despite losing to Steele Canyon in the Division 1 title game, may have turned in the most impressive postseason run. The Falcons received no votes in the penultimate poll, then lost their first playoff game. Undaunted, the Falcons won four straight, including beating No. 1-seeded Mission Hills twice, on the Grizzlies' diamond, 3-2 and 7-4.
In baseball, Patrick Henry jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 after winning the Open Division title, beating powerhouse Cathedral Catholic twice. Eastlake, which lost to Henry in the title game, moved from No. 4 to No. 2.
Madison moved up five spots to No. 5, with Helix jumping into the final poll at No. 10.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 4:01 PM.