Baseball Rankings: South Hills takes over top spot with Bishop Amat falling to No. 8

Tribune Top Ten Baseball Poll
1. South Hills (5-0) –– With Adrian De Horta and Kevin MCKelvey you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better one-two combination on the hill. I’d share their stats, but we all know South Hills doesn’t share stats, so bare with me in coverage of the Huskies. But McKelvey has thrown back to back shutouts and we saw what De Horta can do in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bonita and Justin Garza, ending the kid’s 18-game win streak. Plus they got Saylor and France, what more do you want.

2. Charter Oak (4-1) — After a season opening loss to Yucaipa in the Dicks Sporting Goods tournament, the Chargers ran the table and beat West Covina 7-2 in a consolation game Saturday. Even more impressive is they only have allowed seven runs in four straight wins. And guess what, they host South Hills in Wednesday’s Sierra League opener at 3:30 p.m.

3. Bonita (4-1) — The Bearcats are two different teams, the one with Justin Garza pitching and the one without him. With Garza, they’re a top three area team, without him, not sure if they’re even in the top ten. It’s not a good sign that in Garza’s last two games they scored just one run for him and were shutout against South Hills. This team needs to swing the bat better if they hope to do anything in the postseason.

4. Damien (3-2) –– Since losing 6-0 in the opener against Bonita and Garza, the Spartans scored 32 runs during a 3-1 stretch, losing their last game 8-2 to Orange Lutheran. Like we said in the season preview, they can hit with anyone, but give up a lot of runs on occasion too. They should be up and down in the Sierra all year.

5. Northview (3-1-1) — I like the competitive 3-3 tie with Los Osos, the 4-3 win over Tahquitz and 13-6 win over Rancho Cucamonga.Their only setback was a 1-0 loss to Claremont so while this might not be the Vikings of old, they don’t look like the weak Vikings of last year, either.

6. Diamond Bar (4-0) — Great start, but in comparison to other top teams in the area, the Brahmas’ wins have come against Ontario, Baldwin Park, Azusa and Don Lugo, not exactly the murders’ row of the Valley. They could start 6-0 with Keppel and Chino to follow before opening the Hacienda against West Covina

7. San Dimas (4-2) — Played in the West San Gabriel Valley Elks tournament and beat Arcadia 3-2 followed by a 6-4 loss against Temple City. Jury’s still out on the Saints, but it’s a good sign they haven’t allowed more than four runs in any game.

8. Bishop Amat (1-4) — Oh, how they mighty have fallen. I don’t want to hear how tough their schedule is, etc, etc, they have player of the year Rio Ruiz back and one of the area’s best pitchers in lefty Daniel Zamora. You can say they’re playing a brutal schedule, but this is what Amat does every year. What they don’t have so far is consistent hitting throughout the lineup or pitching depth. They might get away with it in the Del Rey and Division 4 playoffs, but not against the beasts from Orange County.

9. Glendora (2-2) — What happened to the Glendora preseason baseball tournament? That’s a different question for a different day. The Tartans absolutely crushed Moreno Valley and Heritage and lost by a combined three runs to Diamond Ranch and Heritage. Look, at the end of the day, they’re one of the Valley’s finest and will be competing for a Baseline league title.

10. Covina (2-3) — Leaving the Colts in the top ten because they’re too good to be below .500. I still think they’re the team to beat in the Valle Vista because their three losses have come by just a combined four runs, and they lost two one-run games. They’ll be back.

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