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New Episode LIVE now! - At The Yard Podcast

The 2024 California high school baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across California.

Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons in their respective CIF Section Championship Game, but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview individual teams across California. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews, eventually releasing our Preseason Power 25 rankings that’ll carry us into the opening week of action and the Third Annual Prep Baseball California Spring Invitational.

Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across California. Each week we will be releasing our Power 25, Players of the Week, Diamond Notes, Podcasts and much more.

Our 2024 season coverage continues today.

High School: Cardinal Newman Cardinals
Head Coach: Derek DeBenedetti
CIF Section: CIF-NCS, Division 2
Conference League: North Bay League Oak
2023 Record: 28 - 2

Team Strengths: A strength of ours is starting pitching and defense. Our offense will be balanced between the returning Seniors and rising Juniors as we expect the level of production similar to last year.
No. of Returning Starters: 3
No. of Returning Pitchers: 2
Areas of Improvement: With only 1-2 starters from last year's lineup, we look to focus on our offense as an area of growth. Looking to establish an identity and create consistency day in and day out.

 

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COMMITTED PLAYERS

+ ‘24 SS/RHP Diego Boardman - UC Riverside - 6’2 169 lbs.

+ ‘24 OF/RHP Tanner Bradley - Oregon - 6’1 175 lbs.

+ ‘24 1B Dante Overholser - George Fox University - 6’4 212 lbs.

+ ‘25 RHP/UTIL Josh Jannicelli - UC Santa Barbara - 6’5 175 lbs.

+ ‘25 LHP/OF Jack Pezzolo - UC Davis - 5’10 165 lbs.

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TOP UNCOMMITTED SENIORS

+ ‘24 RHP/3B Jacob Moreda - 5’11 180 lbs.

+ ‘24 OF/RHP Issac Phelps

+ ‘24 C Konnor Rodnick - 6’0 171 lbs.

+ ‘24 OF Sam Valenti - 6’2 220 lbs.

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TOP UNCOMMITTED JUNIORS

+ ‘25 MIF/RHP Chase Bromstad - 6'5 185 lbs.

+ ‘25 OF/RHP Sawyer Buonacorssi - 5'10 170 lbs.

+ ‘25 RHP Jared Murray - 6'0 165 lbs.

+ ‘25 3B/2B Charlie Slater - 6'0 165 lbs.

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TOP UNDERCLASS FOLLOWS

Class of 2027

+ ‘27 SS/OF/RHP Colin Bone - 5'11 150 lbs.

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TEAM OUTLOOK

With a relatively new roster, the Cardinals still have some high hopes in 2024. Already off to a 2-1 start, the offense is being led by ‘24 Tanner Bradley, who has recorded a hit in nine of his 12 at-bats this season, good for a .750 average. Fellow senior and UC Riverside commit ‘24 Diego Boardman has also enjoyed a successful start to the season as he is hitting to a tune of .444 and has also driven in a team high three RBIs. Some other prospects that are off to a quality start on the offensive end are ‘24 Konnor Rodnick, ‘24 Sam Valenti, ‘25 Charlie Slater, and ‘24 Jacob Moreda.

As for the pitching efforts, ‘25 Josh Jannicelli has struckout 13 batters over his team-high 8.1 innings thus far and will look to do more of the same as the season progresses. ‘25 Jack Pezzolo has also took on a decent workload early on into the season and he has allowed just three hits in 5.1 innings of work. Look to see Moreda, Boardman, and ‘25 Jared Murray all earn a quality amount of time on the mound this season, too, amongst others.

Coach Derek DeBenedetti’s Expectations: “We expect to compete for a League and Section Championships. If we are successful in winning our Section, we expect to compete for a NorCal Championship”

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