MaxPreps 2015 California Central Section preseason baseball Fab 5, presented by the Army National Guard

1. Clovis
2014 finish: 33-5
Head coach: James Patrick

The Cougars posted one of the best seasons in school history, going 33-5 with a Central Section Division I championship and a No. 4 national ranking by MaxPreps. While first round draft pick Jacob Gatewood and all-area pitcher McCarthy Tatum have graduated, Clovis still returns several of the section's top players. Tevin Mitchell returns at shortstop. He batted .354 last year and he has committed to play at UC Santa Barbara next season. Preston Mott, one of the top pitchers in the Fresno area, also returns. He went 8-1 with 66 strikeouts in 84.2 innings pitched. Dakota Stilson is also back after batting .321 last year.

View last season's Central Section baseball rankings, presented by the Army National Guard

2. Buchanan (Clovis)
2014 finish: 25-8
Head coach: Tom Donald



The Bears have won 25 games each of the past two seasons and finished second in the section last year behind Clovis. Buchanan lost All-American Trenton Kemp in the outfield, but all-area pitcher Conner Loeprich returns after going 10-3 and all-area honor mention infielder Ross Dodds is also back.

View last season's California baseball playoff brackets

3. Tulare Western
2014 finish: 29-5-1
Head coach: Ken Searcy

The Mustangs won the Division II section championship and return the top two pitchers from last year in Kobe Portillo (11-1 record, 1.60 ERA) and Jordan Padilla (7-0, 1.63). Three of the team's top offensive performers also return. Daniel "Nugget" Martinho returns in the infield after batting .286 last year while junior catcher Michael Salazar (.348) also returns. Andrew Muller (.347) returns in the infield.

View last season's California baseball stat leaders

4. Frontier (Bakersfield)
2014 finish: 25-7
Head coach: John Moncier



Frontier fell to Clovis West in the second round of last year's Division I playoffs. The pitching staff should be solid with junior McLain Branch returning from a season when he went 4-0 with two saves. Senior Griffin Owen is also back after going 3-0. The offense should also be strong with Logan Gillaspie (.409) returning along with Harley Lopez (.327) and Konner Dodge (.257).

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5. Centennial (Bakersfield)
2014 finish: 15-13
Head coach: Dan Durham

The Golden Hawks exited the Central Section Division I playoffs in the first round last year, but the team's top pitcher and top four offensive performers return to make Centennial a contender from the south end of the section. Andrew Hansen leads the list of returning players as he batted .356 with four home runs and also had a 7-2 record with a 1.84 ERA. Junior Colby Freeman returns after batting .316 with three home runs while Chris Laurente batted .312 last year as a junior.