Prep baseball, softball rankings: Powerhouses include Franklin, Whitney, Pleasant Grove

If the weather decides to cooperate, there might actually be a flood of games at ballparks near and far.

The start of the Sacramento-area high school baseball scene has featured a lot of rain, soggy fields and postponements or cancellations, but also some glimmers of promise peeking through the clouds.

This includes the power and upside of Bee No. 1 Franklin of the Delta League, No. 2 Whitney of the Sierra Foothill League and No. 3 Pleasant Grove and No. 4 Elk Grove, also of the Delta. No. 5 Oakmont hails from the Foothill Valley League while No. 6 Granite Bay and No. 7 Oak Ridge are also members of the deep SFL.

Because experience, pitching, defense and coaching matter at this level, it’s no surprise at the teams that dot these rankings.

Franklin is coming off a 24-7 season under longtime coach Bryan Kilby, who may be leading the best team in program history with the best pitcher in school history in four-year starter Nolan Stevens. The Mississippi State commit is also on the Major League Baseball draft radar as a pitcher who happens to also hit pretty well. He was The Bee’s Large School Player of the Year last season who went 9-1 in 2022 and drove in 32 runs.

Other pitchers include Nic Abraham, an Oregon Ducks commit who has seven RBI this season, and sophomore Tyler Cody, who tossed a one-walk no-hitter to beat Delta rival Sheldon. Cody is the son of Mike Cody, who started the Franklin baseball program from scratch when the school opened in the Elk Grove Unified School District in 2002 and has been a longtime assistant, now heading the school’s junior varsity program.

Franklin (7-1) has wins over ranked teams in Folsom (5-2), Rocklin (8-2), Granite Bay (3-2) and Whitney (8-1) with a 4-1 setback to Oak Ridge in as challenging of a schedule as you’ll find. The Wildcats have senior stars and an impressive freshman in Dylan Minnatee, who plays in the infield and outfield and has seven RBI and is batting .400.

Franklin has three games this week against Jesuit, which is off to a 1-4-1 start, though coach Joe Potulny has what everyone this soggy season envies — an all-weather baseball infield. Jesuit has a 4-3 loss to highly touted Lincoln of Stockton, an 8-8 tie with Bellarmine of San Jose and Delta League setbacks last week of 6-0, 3-0 and 6-5 to Davis, which has been led by 2023 RBI leader John Churchard and Brian Chin, who has a team-high 13 strikeouts in 13 innings.

Whitney returns a wealth of talent from last season’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship team, coached by 2022 Bee Coach of the Year Jackson Watt, whose team finished on top of The Bee’s 2022 rankings.

Whitney is 5-1 and has a 6-5 win over De La Salle of Concord, a team that finished state-ranked No. 1 last season by Cal-Hi Sports and was top-ranked in the state entering last week. Key players Jax Gimenez, Tyler Allen and Jonathan Vavak each had two hits against De La Salle. Whitney has two ace pitchers in Jace Gilmore, the Santa Clara commit who went 11-0 last season, and Gavin McLendon, a lefty headed to San Diego State who went 9-1 last season with an 0.91 ERA.

Pleasant Grove is off to its best start in years at 6-0 under coach Chris Terry, a Bee All-Metro catcher out of Elk Grove who later coached at Sheldon with college stops across the country. Among the key players for the Eagles have been sophomore Cole Davis, the starting varsity quarterback who is 2-0 this season. So is senior Zach Boorman. Alan Quirate-Guzman has six RBI and Ethan Massi has five.

Pleasant Grove has wins over ranked teams in Vista del Lago (3-1), Oakmont (3-2), Nevada Union (7-6) and Oak Ridge (6-3) and will play Elk Grove three times this week in Delta play.

Elk Grove, with 11 section champions, continues to produce standout teams, including in recent seasons under coach Joe Bellotti, who replaced the hugely successful Jeff Carlson, winner of eight section crowns.

The Thundering Herd entered the week with one loss, to longtime Central Coast Section power Bellarmine of San Jose, 7-1, a team that is 8-1. For Elk Grove, Cy Peterson has eight RBI, Eddie Fines seven and Troy Taylor has a team-best .455 average. The team ERA is 1.98 with Russell Pettis striking out 20 in 14 innings.

No. 5 Oakmont under longtime regional championship coach Paul Martinez lost its opener 3-2 to Pleasant Grove, beat Del Campo 5-1, lost 8-7 to Roseville and has wins of 8-7 over Del Oro and 11-3 over Granite Bay. Oakmont will host Whitney on Tuesday.

No. 11 Del Campo is led by 2022 Bee Medium School Player of the Year Matt Moses, who had 47 hits and went 6-1 on the mound for the section Division III champions. The Cougars have early losses to Vanden (7-3), Oakmont (5-1), Granite Bay (14-8) and Christian Brothers (4-2). They bounced back to beat CB 8-4 and 8-0 in an opening-round Capital Athletic League series.

THE BEE’S TOP 20

Baseball

Records entering Monday

1. Franklin (7-1)

2. Whitney (5-1)

3. Pleasant Grove (6-0)

4. Elk Grove (6-1)

5. Oakmont (5-2)

6. Granite Bay (3-2)

7. Oak Ridge (3-2-1)

8. Vacaville (3-4)

9. Davis (4-2)

10. Woodcreek (1-2-1)

11. Del Campo (2-5)

12. Del Oro (3-1)

13. Rocklin (3-3)

14. Rio Americano (5-0)

15. Vista del Lago (4-1-1)

16. Folsom (1-4-1)

17. Jesuit (1-4-1)

18. Yuba City (4-3)

19. West Park (4-2)

20. Bradshaw Christian (4-0)

Bubble: Bella Vista (4-1); Christian Brothers (2-2-1); Colfax (3-0); Jesuit (1-4-1); Laguna Creek (2-1); Lincoln (0-1); McClatchy (1-5); Nevada Union (5-1); Pioneer (3-1); Placer (3-1); Ponderosa (2-1); River City (6-3); Roseville (4-3); Valley Christian (3-1); Woodland (3-2).

— Joe Davidson/jdavidson@sacbee.com

THE BEE’S TOP 20

SOFTBALL

Records entering Monday

1. Granite Bay (4-1)

2. Whitney (2-0)

3. Franklin (6-0)

4. East Nicolaus (4-0)

5. Vista del Lago (3-0)

6. Oak Ridge (4-1)

7. Pleasant Grove (2-1)

8. Inderkum (2-0)

9. Del Oro (2-1)

10. Elk Grove (2-3)

11. Rocklin (4-3)

12. Folsom (3-1))

13. Capital Christian (1-1)

14. Ponderosa (3-1)

15. Sutter (3-0)

16. Woodcreek (2-1)

17. Antelope (2-2)

18. Wheatland (4-1)

19. Monterey Trail (3-1)

20. Sheldon (1-2)

Bubble: Roseville (0-3); Cordova (1-1); Marysville (2-1); Dixon (2-1).

— Pete Dufour/PeteBeeSports@gmail.com