Valley finds a way; stays No. 1

In a week, this will sort itself out. The way it's supposed to. On the field. No silly rankings. Most runs wins. Win and advance.

The WCAL tournament starts next week, and it promises to be must-watch high school baseball. From there, we move into the CCS tournament, when the Peninsula's best teams will square off.

Until then, here are the rankings.

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Rank	Team	Summary
1.	Valley Christian (19-5-1)	After a split with St. Ignatius Prep, the Warriors retain the top spot. Brock Ketelsen stepped up on Friday with a dominant mound performance. He and Quinten Marsh give Valley a formidable duo at the top. We're still waiting for Kole Laubach to show the same kind of dominance he did last year.
2.	Serra (20-5)	Kelley Crawford's pitching performance on Saturday gives us hope the Padres might have enough pitching to make a run in May. Riley Lim -- and a handful of relievers (Ian Josephson, Aiden Waters, Richie Caloderon and Nate Hui) have been the glue to a pitching staff that has lacks star power but has held the opposition off the scoreboard. Josephson is on the short list for the Peninsula's best player.
3.	Saint Francis (19-6)	The Lancers won two of three games this week. A sweep of Mitty wipes away the bad taste of an early-week loss to Sacred Heart. A minor blip by Landon Kim. He's bounce back on Tueesday against St. Ignatius Prep. The offense is coming around. Tanner Wall's heater continues, while freshman Landon Kim is coming off his biggest high school game.
4.	St. Ignatius Prep (14-8-2)	We like that the Wildcats showed fight twice this week by scoring game-tying runs in the seventh inning to force extras -- and then winning both games, including Friday's 2-1 thirller over Valley Christian. St. Ignatius Prep is confident the Peninsula's toughest schedule will pay dividends this month.
5.	Menlo-Atherton (16-7)	A split with The King's Academy showed the Bears strength. They have pitching. But it's guys like catcher JT Anderson, shortstop Will Roberts and centerfielder (and leadoff man) Merrick Lee that make this team special. By the way, Jimmy Zaharias and Ryder Kelly are pretty good, too.
6.	Capuchino (15-9)	If Andres Gomez isn't the player of the year in Bay Division, he's in the conversation. He has 44 hits in 24 games -- neearly two per game -- and is the consumate table setter. We'd be remise for not mentioning that Declan Mendel came within an out of his fourth straight shutout. An infield error cost him, but his earned run average is now a microscopic 0.36.
7.	Menlo School (14-8)	The Knights are coming off a sweep of Half Moon Bay. They face Woodside this week and close the Ocean Division season with a series against Aragon, which saw the return on Josh Jacobs on Saturday. In other words, there's still meat on the bone for Menlo. Jack Freehill is having a solid year for the Knights.
8.	Terra Nova (15-5-1)	The Tigers have righted the ship after their three-game losing streak. The sohomores, led by shortstop Brody Finale, are playing well. Juniors Joey Donati and Luke Ornelas are having big years and coach Jared Milch has found a lineup that makes Terra Nova a team to watch -- now and in future seasons.
9.	Sequoia (13-9)	Mike Doyle's team was one of the few squads around that had yet to go on any kind of streak -- good or bad. The Ravens are finally putting it together. Four straight wins has them poised for a CCS berth. Their depth goes deeper than catcher Logan Mathias and slugger Morgan Winfielder. Drew Ostrander has been one of their hottest hitters in this streak, while Cammeron Abrams and Vince Olinger Giani are getting on base regularly.
10.	The King's Academy (10-9)	The Knights are coming off their best week of the season -- a series split with Menlo-Atherton and a 12-2 thrashing of Scotts Valley on Saturday. If you're not aware of Nate Plata, Ethan Johnson and Toby Trotter, you've been living under a rock. Those three give The King's Academy a dangerous middle-of-the-order trio. Thomas Castro's 111-pitch effort this week was a good sign for Greg Mugg's club.

Creepers: Hillsdale (11-10), Bellarmine (10-11). Sacred Heart Cathedral (12-13), Mitty (11-13).