It has been a few years since El Toro baseball was in the hunt for a playoff berth.

El Toro finished last in the Sea View League last season with a 1-11 league record. The Chargers were 6-20 overall. In 2023 they were last in the Sea View League with a 4-8 record and were 10-19 overall.

The El Toro baseball program that has produced current MLB players Nolan Arenado, Matt Chapman and Paul Skenes is having a much better time of it in 2025.

Going into this week, El Toro is 13-9 overall and in third place in the five-team Sea View League with a 5-4 league record. The top three teams in a five-team league are guaranteed playoff berths in the CIF Southern Section playoffs that begin in mid-May.

Mike Gonzales, in his 25th season as El Toro’s coach, baseball said the Chargers are a senior-led group.

“It’s pretty much been everybody who’s contributed at one time or another,” Gonzales said. “There really isn’t one guy who’s carried us. It’s been a combination of guys, which has been really cool to see.”

Among the senior leaders are: second baseman Nacho Gonzales, who is the coach’s son and has 20 hits and five doubles; shortstop Jack McKelvy, who has a team-high 15 RBIs; third baseman Talen Nodalo, who has 14 RBIs; right fielder Kenny Park; center fielder and leadoff batter Blake Rajan, who is hitting .319; and pitcher Anthony Shapuis, who is 4-1 with a 1.30 ERA.

McKelvy was an all-league quarterback, Gonzales was an all-league linebacker and Chapuis played defensive end on the El Toro football team.

El Toro plays Capistrano Valley in three nonleague games this week. The Chargers conclude the regular season next week with three league games against San Clemente, which went into this week tied with San Juan Hills for first in the Sea View League.

OC baseball Top 25: Orange Lutheran, Cypress move up in the Top 10

NOTES

Corona del Mar’s baseball field was named National Field of the Year by the Sports Field Managers Association. …

The final day of the regular season is May 7. CIF-SS baseball playoff brackets for the nine divisions will be released May 12 at 10 a.m. The playoffs begin with first-round games in Divisions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 on May 15, and first-round games in Divisions 2, 4, 6 and 8 on May 16. …

The CIF-SS baseball playoffs have grown to nine divisions with 32 teams per division. CIF-SS baseball grew to eight playoff divisions last season after having seven playoff divisions from 2005-23. …

Computer-based rankings will determine which teams go into which CIF-SS playoff divisions and the order in which those teams will be seeded in those divisions. The next update of the rankings will be released Wednesday. From the rankings released last week, Orange County teams that are among the top 32 teams, which would comprise Division 1, are (in order of their ranking): Huntington Beach, Santa Margarita, Orange Lutheran, El Dorado, Villa Park, Los Alamitos, Cypress, Laguna Beach, Newport Harbor, Trabuco Hills, Servite and Aliso Niguel. …

Sites for the baseball championship games have not been determined. That could mean that Southern California college baseball home sites, like Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field where Long Beach State plays, could be in the running for the CIF-SS baseball finals if neither of those venues are used for college baseball playoff rounds. …

Huntington Beach is closing in on what would be an eighth straight league championship. The Oilers were 11-0 in the seven-team Sunset League going into this week’s three-game series against second-place Newport Harbor. Newport Harbor took a 9-3 league record into this week. …

Not every Orange County baseball team makes its statistics public. Of those that do, the top three county batting-average leaders, according to the information published on MaxPreps.com, are Westminster’s Jordan Solis (.556, 25 hits in 45 at bats), Magnolia’s Gabe Segura (.533, 16 for 30) and Santiago’s Matthew Rubin (.525, 21 for 40). …

Orange County baseball stat leaders through April 19

County RBI leaders, based on the stats on MaxPreps, are: Katella’s Kevin Reyes Mejia (25 RBIs), Aliso Niguel’s Cooper Flemming (23 RBIs) and Orange Lutheran’s Hamilton Friedberg (23 RBIs). …

County pitching strikeout leaders are: Sonora’s Robby Blaine, Sonora (83 strikeouts in 52 innings), Woodbridge’s Vincent De Marco (79 in 46.1 innings) and Laguna Beach’s Branson Wade (73 in 51.2 innings). …

Servite senior Tomas Cernius went into this week with team highs of 27 hits and .409 batting average. He was All-CIF Southern Section Division 1 first team in football as a defensive end. Cernius (6-4, 230) committed to Princeton.

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