2023 Team Previews: De La Salle Spartans

The Road to the California State Games begins with the 2023 California high school baseball season. With the season just around the corner, our staff has begun putting out team previews from all around the state, getting you prepared for another year of exciting coverage.

Today we focus on the De La Salle Spartans who earned the inaugural CIF Division 1 NorCal Championships in 2022. In addition, the Spartans continued their dominant stretch of winning, making it five straight North Coast Section Championships and five out of the last seven EBAL Championships for the program, and they expect to keep the tradition going in 2023.

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Team:

De La Salle Spartans

Head Coach (years at school):

David Jeans 

Twitter Handle:

@DLSBaseball

CIF Section & Division:

North Coast Section Division 1, Norcal Division 1

Conference/League Name:

EBAL

Last Year’s Record:

27-6

11-2 (League) 

2022 Playoff Run:

2022 North Coast Section Division 1 Champions, 2022 Norcal Division 1 Champions

# of Returning Starters:

4

# of Returning Pitchers:

2

Team Expectations:

"We are looking forward to the opportunity of returning to the Northern Cal Championship for the 2nd year in a row and the North Coast Section Championship for the 11th consecutive year. We are looking forward to carrying on the Spartan tradition. I expect us to contend for a title again this year.”

Team Strengths:

“We will be led by 10 returning varsity players, including 6 starters. We return 3 Division 1 signed player’s and have 5 underclass players who have [verbally committed] to Division 1 schools. We have 5 additional players with offers to Division 1 schools. We should be very good defensively with speed.

Areas of Improvement:

“We will have to replace the power from last year’s team with speed. Replacing the infielders from last year is key. The pitching will need time to be playoff ready because of the youth. The schedule will provide those opportunities. This team has major talent that will need to mature over the year.”

College Commitments:

Smith Chandler- Cal State Northridge; 2B, 5-10, 165lbs, SR,  “Runs a 6.55 60; saw valuable time with last year’s team”

Jamie Mullin- UC Santa Barbara; 3B, 6-3, 205lbs, JR, “Big, powerful player. Should bat in the middle of the lineup.”

Joe McGee- Arizona; OF, 5-10, 180lbs, JR, “Runs a 6.55 60”

Tanner Griffith- St. Mary’s; OF, 5-9, 160lbs, SR, “Will bat second in the lineup. Tanner had a huge year for us last year.”

Cal Randall- UCLA; P, 6-3, 200lbs, SR, “A three-year varsity letterman, Cal has topped 95 mph and is projectable in the draft.”

Jack Hershey- UC Santa Barbara; RHP, 6-5, 205lbs, JR, “Jack is a right handed pitcher that is up to 89 mph.”

RJ Meyn- Santa Clara; LHP, 5-11,170lbs, JR, “Had a great summer”

Top Uncommitted 23s:

Kai Smith- OF, 6-0, 175lbs

Connor Harrison- C, 6-2, 205lbs, RHH

Top Uncommitted 24s:

Sean Stafford- 1B/LHP, 6-1, 180lbs, Switch hitter

Max Ghiglieri- LHP, 5-10, 165lbs

Top Uncommitted 25s:

Alec Blair- OF/P, 6-6, 185lbs

Top Uncommitted 26s:

Tyler Spangler- INF, 6-3, 170lbs, LHH