Moore League baseball play starts on Wednesday March 24th, and our preview will be out a few days prior, giving you all the info you need (and likely more) to follow your favorite team this season. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we wanted to let you know where everyone stood after the first few weeks of nonleague play (teams ordered by number of wins).
Lakewood (7-0)
The Lancers are definitely off to the league’s hottest start, unbeaten through seven games and currently ranked as MaxPreps’ number one team in the nation. They’ve won their first seven by a combined 60-10, with wins over La Mirada, Vista Murrieta, Paramount, and a 10-1 win over El Toro, in the Loara Tourney championship.
The Lancers have hit five homeruns, and are led offensively by Jeff Yamaguchi, who is on a 13-25 tear to start the season, with 14 RBI, and 8 extra-base hits. Yamaguchi, Shane Watson, and Nicholas Sanchez have all pitched 11+ innings, and all have an ERA of under two (Yamaguchi is 1.85, Watson is 0, and Sanchez is 0.64).
Between Lakewood and a perfect record at the start of league play (vs. Millikan on Wednesday) are a pair of road games this afternoon at La Mirada (who they’ve beaten 11-0 already), and a road game against Downey on Saturday.
Wilson (5-2)
Lakewood has gotten the lion’s share of the attention in the rankings, but Wilson has had a solid nonleague so far as well. Their two losses were both in the Loara Tournament; they lost their first game to Santa Margarita, then won three straight to earn a berth into the consolation championship, where they lost their second game to Canyon. The combined W-L for those two teams is 10-3, with one of those losses coming to Edison.
Offensively, Wilson has four players hitting over ..350—Phillip Visico, Daniel DeWolf, Chris Hubbard, and Myles Mendez. In seven games however, nobody has more than eight hits.
Stefan Miladinovich has been the most active pitcher, with 13.2 innings pitched, and just three runs given up. Riley Parker, Chase Dejong, and Kyle Ritter have also seen significant time on the mound.
Wilson has a game against La Mirada this Saturday, then six days of free time before they open up in league on Friday March 26th, against Lakewood—in a must-see game.
Poly (3-4)
Poly is looking so far much like the team they were last year—a talented squad with the potential to pull some upsets, but who haven’t quite grasped their identity yet. So far Poly has played seven games—they don’t yet have two wins or two losses in a row. The wins have been big-batted performances against Mira Costa, North Torrance, and Downey, in which Poly averaged eight runs a game. In the losses, they’ve struggled to keep the scored down, allowing an average of 8.5 runs per-game.
The hitters so far are Jeff Turley Jr., and Tyler Maxwell; Turley is 6-11, with a homerun to his credit. The Rabbits have perhaps the most intriguing young pitcher in the league, as freshman Chris Castellanos has put in 11 innings of work, and given up zero runs…and just four hits. Freshman, you read that right.
Poly has a game with Mira Costa on Friday before opening league against Cabrillo next Wednesday.
Cabrillo (2-1)
The Jaguars have played just three games, and will have just one more (Friday at Animo Leadership) before they open league play against Poly next week. But Cabrillo is intriguing—they haven’t played the highest level of talent (Port of LA, Oxford Academy, and Lawndale), but the offensive production by Cabrillo is still notable. They’ve scored 29 runs in three games, and look to have a few quality hitters in Louie Terrazas and Luis Venegas, both hitting .600.
Ramiro Rosalez is the ace, with 10.1 innings pitched, and two runs given up.
Millikan (2-5)
The Rams are off to a rocky start…so what else is new? Millikan started 2-6 last season before going on an unbelievable defensive streak and taking the Moore League title. They’re missing a great pitcher and an MLB draftee from that team, but with wins over Los Al and Downey, there’s definitely pieces in place. It’s going to come down to pitching, for Millikan, as they’ve yet to score more than three runs in a game.
Matt Clampitt and Tanner Lowrey are the leading hitters, and they’re going to need backup as the season progresses. Sophomore Jordan Ybarra has a homerun.
The Rams do return the league’s best pitcher in Josh Frye, and the Long Beach State commit has looked to be in top form so far, with three earned runs given up in just over 12 innings of work.
Compton (1-5)
Info on Compton is scarce since we have no stats, but they are playing an ambitious schedule, with nine games on the docket before league play. The win was a 10-8 defeat of Saddleback in the Newport Elks Tournament (the Roadrunners are 0-6). The Tarbabes have a doubleheader at home against Rollings Hills Prep before starting at Jordan next Wednesday.
Jordan (0-8)
The Panthers are another team we don’t have full stats for, but so far the issue for Jordan has been defense, as they’ve given up 62 runs in the six games we have scores for. If the Panthers can find someone to step in for the graduated Marcos Lara as their go-to ace, things could get interesting.
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