Baseball:

With roughly one month to go in the 2021 spring sports season, the results over the next few weeks will intensify in importance.

Palomares League:

Whether it’s politically correct to say or not, Ayala, the No. 1 ranked team in CIF-SS Division 1, will not be caught.

The Bulldogs (13-1 overall, 7-0 in league) have three-game leads over Bonita, Glendora and Claremont.

But second place is up for grabs between the Bearcats, Tartans and Wolfpack, as each program has four two-game series left on their regular season schedule.

Over the past week, Ayala swept Alta Loma, Glendora won both games against Colony and Bonita and Claremont spit their two-game series.

GHS and Bonita open a two-game series this week, which begins Wednesday at Bonita.

The Bearcats’ Edrian Rangel and Luke Mistone will face off with the Tartans’ Jeff Isenhart and Johnnie Valdez on the mound.

Bonita claimed a 4-3 victory over GHS back on April 14.

Ayala and Claremont will meet up twice this week.

Valle Vista League:

At the start of last week, conventional wisdom was that San Dimas, Northview and Charter Oak would battle it out to the wire for league supremacy.

And there is every chance that could still happen, but San Dimas and Charter Oak made strong statements this week.

The Saints dominated the Vikings in game one, 11-1, but as Northview had done all year, they responded well to adversity.

Forty-eight hours after being knocked around at San Dimas, the Vikings held a 4-3 lead and were just one strike away from splitting their series with the Saints.

But with two on, two strikes and two out, Ryan Kim hit a three-run home run, and SDHS would get the sweep, defeating Northview, 6-4.

Northview will sweep last-place Diamond Ranch this week.

And then it’s two games apiece with West Covina, Charter Oak and Covina in that order.

Charter Oak swept their two-game series with Covina by a combined margin of 25-1, and the Chargers got complete-game wins from Zack Bauer and Chris Ceballos.

Bauer threw a one-hit shutout and Ceballos allowed just one run on Friday.

West Covina swept Diamond Ranch, as Jesse Chavez went 7-7 in the two-game series with the Panthers.

This week, San Dimas and Covina meet up twice, as do Charter Oak and West Covina.

Pacific League:

After 10 days off to COVID-19 protocol, Arcadia did what they were supposed to, and that was to sweep Hoover.

Casey Spencer got his fifth win of the season on Tuesday, and then Jack Esguerra went 4-for-4, scored three runs and drove in five, as the Apaches finished off the two-game sweep of the Tornados, 19-2.

Three weeks in, Burbank (6-0 in league), Crescenta Valley (6-0) and Arcadia (3-0) look to be the league favorites.

The bottom three of the Pacific League (Pasadena, Hoover and Muir) are a combined 1-17.

You could easily make the argument that Adonis Harrison has made the biggest impact  of any SGV area baseball coach over the last three years.

Muir hadn’t made the playoffs since the 1980’s, but in year one, the Mustangs and their skipper didn’t just make a postseason appearance, they actually had a 4-2 combined record in the 2018 and 2019 postseason.

Unfortunately, because of the pandemic and a league-only schedule, Muir was more than three weeks behind the top-tier programs in the league, and they find themselves 0-6, and have been outscored, 72-21.

This week includes two-game Pacific League series between CV-Burroughs, Arcadia-Glendale, PHS-Arcadia and Muir-Hoover.

Baseline League:

After the first week of Baseline League competition, Chino Hills, Damien and Los Osos have to like where they stand.

The Huskies and Spartans swept their three-game series with Upland and Etiwanda, respectively.

And the Grizzlies took two of three with Rancho Cucamonga after dropping game one.

Damien outscored Etiwanda, 35-15, and they’ll face off with Upland this week.

RCHS can get right back into the hunt with a good week.

The Cougars open their three-game series with Chino Hills on Monday.

And Los Osos will host Etiwanda on Monday in the first of three between the Grizzlies and Eagles.

Mission Valley League:

Marshall Fundamental won a pair of MVL games this past week and improved to 6-0.

The Eagles defeated Arroyo, 7-5, on Wednesday.

And they finished off the week with a 7-3 victory at Mountain View.

The Eagles handed Arroyo its first MVL loss of the season and they now hold a 1.5 game lead over the Knights.

Travis Delgado (2-0), Alex Chew (2-0), Gabe Mabee (2-0) and Sam Karp (1-0) have all held their own on the mound.

Devan Kelly (.400 average, 10 hits, eight runs & five RBIs) and Alex Chew (.370, 10 hits, 10 runs, 18 RBIs and six doubles) have paced the Eagles offense.

Alex Chew’s 18 RBIs is 11 more than his next closest teammate (Max Stukel), who has driven in seven runs.

No one else in Marshall’s lineup is hitting over the .300 mark, but expect that to change as the season heats up.

Marshall will host third-place Gabrielino on Wednesday and travel to fourth-place El Monte on Friday.

Hacienda League:

Walnut earned a 2-1 victory on Tuesday at South Hills in the 2021 league opener.

The reigning Hacienda League champs bounced back on Thursday, and defeated the Mustangs, 4-2, at Walnut.

South Hills will host Diamond Bar on Tuesday in the first of two games this week with the first-place Brahmas.

Diamond Bar defeated Wilson by scores of 4-0 and 6-2.

Los Altos hammered Rowland, 18-0 and 11-0.

The Conquerors and Walnut meet up for two games this week.

Rio Hondo League:

First-place Monrovia (11-2, 4-0) only played one game last week, and it was a 4-3 nonleague victory over St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano.

The Wildcats find themselves on a seven-game win streak.

Monrovia will face off with last-place San Marino (1-9) in a pair of Rio Hondo League games on Tuesday and Friday.

And sandwiched in between, is a Thursday nonleague showdown with visiting La Salle.

The Lancers took two of three from Cathedral in the first week of Del Rey League play.

Coleman Mitchell (5-0, 0.79 ERA) and Chantz Powers (3-1, 2.18) have led the Wildcats’ pitching staff all season.

Mitchell is also batting .400, with 10 hits and eight runs.

Nathan Thompson is hitting .308, but he leads Monrovia in hits (12), runs (9), RBIs (12), triples (2) and home runs (1).

Powers is batting .321, with nine hits, five runs, five RBIs and two doubles.

Olympic League:

Maranatha is running away from the pack in defense of its Olympic League championship.

The Minutemen are on a 10-game win streak, and find themselves 10-1 overall, and 5-0 in league games.

Maranatha defeated Whittier Christian twice last week, and three times in 2021.

On Tuesday, the Minutemen cruised to a 9-1 victory, but on Friday, they had to score three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat the Heralds, 6-5.

MHS and second-place Valley Christian will meet up twice this week.

Maranatha hosts VC on Tuesday, and then the Minutemen will travel to Cerritos on Thursday.