The Bee’s Top 20 high school baseball rankings: Jesuit’s Big Red Machine surges
Big Red baseball has been a thing in Sacramento-area high school baseball for decades.
First, there were the famed Cordova Lancers of the 1970s and ‘80s under Hall of Fame coach Guy Anderson, the winningest baseball coach in Northern California history with 927 victories over a 45-year career and a slew of pitchers and mashers who reached the highest level of the sport.
By the early 1990s, the next Big Red wave started in Carmichael with the Jesuit Marauders. At the varsity helm as head coach since 1993 and a coach at his alma mater for 40 years, Joe Potulny has produced league and CIF Sac-Joaquin Section champions while attending practices over the years in a variety of replica Major League Baseball uniforms. The man hasn’t changed a bit, and no one shakes more hands than Potulny, one of the good spirits in high school sports.
On Monday in Placer County, there was a celebration of sorts as Jesuit topped host Granite Bay 11-8 in extra innings to move up to second in The Sacramento Bee’s rankings. Jesuit scored five runs in the top of the eighth to secure the championship of the Sierra Foothill League, the deepest and most competitive league in the section.
Potulny still runs the show, and he has a right-hand man in co-coach Kevin Dawidczik, a section-championship winning coach at Del Campo in Fair Oaks before joining Big Red.
Dillon Pratt inspired his Jesuit teammates and coaches with a gritty pitching performance in his first start of the season after rehabilitation from elbow surgery. Pratt pitched three shutout innings, striking out one and allowing a hit in the fourth inning. Jesuit pitchers allowed no walks in the game.
Jordan Walczykowski had three RBIs, Chase Tanner had four and Parker Lipp two. Jonah Glover and Sammy Kane each had an RBI, and the Oregon Ducks-bound Kane scored three runs.
Jesuit plays Granite Bay on Tuesday and Thursday in a continuation of all-timer coaches duel. Ranked third by The Bee, Granite Bay is led by founding program coach Pat Esposito, who is closing in on 500 victories with the Grizzlies.
Jesuit has clinched the SFL with a 12-4 start. Granite Bay is tied with Del Oro for second at 10-6, with fellow Bee-ranked squads Rocklin and Folsom sitting at 9-7 in league and Oak Ridge at 8-8.
Jesuit looms as a favorite in the section Division II playoffs that start May 5. The D-II field also includes Elk Grove, Woodcreek of Roseville, Rodriguez of Fairfield, West Park of Roseville, Vacaville, Del Oro, Rocklin and Laguna Creek.
Herd is the word
A storied program since the 1960s with scores of players who went on to play in Major League Baseball, Elk Grove is still Thundering along as The Bee’s top-ranked team that looms as a serious threat in the section Division II tournament.
Under coach Joe Bellotti, Cal-bound fourth-year starting infielder Chase Groves and others, Elk Grove topped rival Franklin two out of three times in a series to secure the Delta League championship. Elk Grove caps regular-season play this week with two games against Cosumnes Oaks.
The Herd lost to Franklin in the series opener, 10-6, then won the next two games, 10-4 and 5-4.
In the 5-4 clincher, Groves, Brayden Ford, Tristen Bartlett and Gavin Martin each had an RBI. Jayden Hernandez leads the team in batting at .430 and with 24 RBI, followed by Groves at .390 and Hudson Hall at .375. Ford has a 1.20 ERA, followed by Cooper Gannon at 2.24 and Anthony Bascherini at 2.50.
Rio roars on
Rio Americano, ranked No. 9 by The Bee, clinched a share of the Capital Valley Conference championship with No. 13 Woodcreek, a team that the Raiders swept in three games. To say the least, Rio Americano will be a title contender in section Division III play.
Trey Howell-Chase has had a monstrous season as a junior infielder and looms as a Bee Player of the Year candidate. He leads the Raiders with a .465 average and 40 hits and 29 runs. He also has 17 RBIs a team-best five triples and a team-high 30 stolen bases.
Designated hitter Jackson Hobbs is batting .391 and sophomore centerfielder Bryce Kurihara is hitting .372. Joey Dormann has an 0.64 ERA, Conor Flynn has a 1.89 ERA and Pierce Tully has a 1.98 ERA.
The Bee’s Top 20
(records entering Tuesday)
1. Elk Grove (20-6)
2. Jesuit (16-10)
3. Granite Bay (15-10)
4. McClatchy (22-4)
5. West Park (20-5)
6. Franklin (17-7-1)
7. Roseville (19-4)
8. Vacaville (19-8)
9. Rio Americano (21-6)
10. Folsom (17-9)
11. Rocklin (12-13-1)
12. Del Oro (14-9-1)
13. Woodcreek (17-8)
14. Oak Ridge (11-14)
15. Placer (20-5)
16. Vista del Lago (18-9)
17. Bella Vista (15-12)
18. Bradshaw Christian (19-4)
19. Laguna Creek (14-10)
20. Woodland (20-4)
Bubble: Liberty Ranch (16-8); Lincoln (19-3-1); Sutter (20-4); Wheatland (19-6); Woodland Christian (20-3-1).