Nation's No. 3 2026 baseball recruit Tyler Spangler leads De La Salle into title game with rival Serra

Stanford commit and Corey Seager lookalike is about to finish off monster junior season but it won't be complete without third NorCal title in four years for the Spartans

Tyler Spangler (22) staring down a pitch in a game for his De La Salle Spartans. / delabaseball-Instagram.com

CONCORD, Calif. — Unlike when he steps to the plate, when asked about his monster junior season, Tyler Spangler seems a little unsure. 

The De La Salle shortstop, rated the No. 1 junior player overall in California by Prep Baseball Report and No. 3 in the nation, doesn’t analyze his own performance as much as the big picture view of the baseball diamond. 

Perhaps that’s why he’s already secured a scholarship to Stanford. 

Self evaluation? Doesn’t matter.  

“As long as we’re winning it doesn’t really matter what I’m doing,” he said. “As long as we’re winning it’s all good and I’m happy.” 

The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder — think young Corey Seager — has to be downright giddy then heading into Saturday’s CIF Northern California Division 1 championship home game with Serra. 

The top-seeded Spartans (28-4) have won 18 of 19 and 28 of 30 since opening the season with two straight losses. Spangler has been the main catalyst in a lineup that is hitting .337 as a group and averaging 8.1 runs per game. 

The left-handed hitter is second on the team with a .423 average but leads in runs (40), hits (41), triples (6), home runs (10) and OPS (1.451). He’s leads the 2-3-4 all-lefty part of the lineup followed by Cal Poly-bound Antonio Castro (.418, 41 hits, 44 RBIs, nine doubles, seven home runs, 1.243 OPS) and Oklahoma-bound Alec Blair (.446, 33 hits, 30 runs, nine doubles, 1.304 OPS) that is impossible to pitch around. 

The development of second baseman Castro, who didn’t start last year, has surely been key. Blair, a two-sport star, like Spangler, has been a starter since his freshman season. In fact, Spangler homered in his very first varsity at-bat. 

ONE LAST STAND | De La Salle two-sport recruit Alec Blair heads to Oklahoma after Saturday

It’s been largely nothing but winning ever since — the Spartans are 76-18 in his career — though two defeats last year are hard to even talk about. 

The mild-mannered and friendly Spangler gets almost indignant when thinking about those losses, both to Granada, one for the North Coast Section title (1-0 in 14 innings, breaking a string of six straight NCS titles) and 5-0 (in the NorCal semifinals, breaking a streak of two straight NorCal titles). 

Stanford bound Tyler Spangler, ranked the top junior in California by Prep Baseball Report, leads the Spartans in the NorCal Division 1 championship Saturday against Serra in Concord. / Photo courtesy of De La Salle Sports

De La Salle won its 15th NCS title last week with an 11-2 win over College Park and seek its third NorCal title in four years on Saturday.

“It was awful,” Spangler said of losing those two games last season. "It was the worst feeling ever. We were trying to play for the seniors and seeing them leave the field like that, it was a terrible feeling.

“But we’re trying to get back to that dogpile (celebration) at the end. That’s the best feeling in the world.” 

To get that feeling, they’ll face a very close and cohesive bunch from Serra that lost 18 seniors off a very good team last year, but has largely overachieved thanks to solid pitching, hitting, speed and camaraderie. 

Spangler believes his Spartans are hard to match in all those categories as well, especially on the inside. 

Saturday's matchup features two schools with loads of tradition.

Besides perhaps football's GOAT, Tom Brady, Serra boasts some other pretty famous athletic alums in Barry Bonds, Lynn Swann, Gregg Jefferies and David Bakhtiari.

De La Salle's Mt. Rushmore-plus include Amani Toomer, Aaron Taylor, Maurice Jones-Drew, D.J. Williams, Isaiah Foskey, Kristian Ipsen, Chris Wondolowski, along with baseball's Kyle Harrison, Blake Burke and Chris Carter.

“We’re right where we want to be,” he said. “We’re really closely knit. We do everything together. The camaraderie is unbeatable.”

De La Salle junior shortstop and Stanford commit Tyler Spangler blasted his 10th home run on May 28 and scored three runs in a 10-1 win over Foothill in the North Coast Section Division 1 semifinals. / File photo courtesy of De La Salle athletics

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