Buchanan tops national baseball rankings | The Fresno Bee

There was a mixed response inside the Buchanan dugout Monday to the Bears' No. 1 national high school baseball ranking by MaxPreps.

"It's a nice honor," Bears pitcher/shortstop Seth Moranda said, "but all that matters is how you finish and where you finish."

Coach Tom Donald agreed: "It's a nice feather in our cap. It's really nice to have but, really, the most important win is the last game of the year, so it really doesn't matter.

They need only to point to Tri-River Athletic Conference rival Clovis West a year ago.

The Golden Eagles were top-ranked nationally by Baseball America in early May and were No. 8 later in the month, when they lost 7-5 to Buchanan for the Central Section Division I title after having beaten the Bears three times.

Ranked behind Buchanan (25-2) in the top five by MaxPreps are The Woodlands-Texas, South County-Lorton, Va., and a pair of Arizona teams in Mountain Pointe-Phoenix and Hamilton-Chandler.