With 15 all-time North Coast Section championships, it's impossible to determine which is the best Spartans baseball team that has ever taken the field just by looking at stats and data.
In particular, the 1985, 1996, 1997, and 2000 teams don't have much stats and data available but we know the very first NCS Championship team from 40 years ago, the 1985 Hall of Fame squad, won 20 in a row to end the season and the 1997 Hall of Fame team sent all of their starters to play in college, including their top three pitchers.
Pitching coach and Spartans Class of 2024 Hall of Famer Clayton Tanner was part of a terrific 2005 NCS title team that had a 1.79 team ERA, allowed just a .198 batting average to opponents, scored 8.5 runs per game and set a foundation for the 2007 championship team.
Additionally, the 2020 squad would likely be recognized among the best ever Spartans teams, and even held a #1 ranking in the country early in the year, but the season was wiped out for Kyle Harrison and company after 4 games because of Covid.
There was no postseason for the talented 2021 team although they did run their own mock postseason, sweeping a very good Cal team to close the year, as the Spartans won 13 in a row to close out the spring.
The 2015 and 2024 teams that lost NCS championship games also deserve recognition in these numbers as they fell to legendary East Bay teams in those title games.
The point of this article is to see how the legendary 2025 Spartans team measures up against some of the best Spartans teams we've seen in the past couple of decades. This year's team set a NCS record with a +40 run differential in 4 playoff wins and won the CIF NorCal Championship, making it the third NorCal title in the four years of the competition. While the offense may not fully measure up statistically to the 2023, 2021, or 2018 teams and the pitching staff may not have the dominance of the 2019 and 2016 teams, the balance of this year's team really stands out.
The 2025 team certainly has a claim to make about being the best defensive Spartans team of all-time. This year's Spartans committed just 25 errors in 33 games and allowed only 10 unearned runs, which is the lowest number of all of the Spartans teams from the past 21 years (Statistical information on MaxPreps began with the 2005 season.). Statistically, the best Spartans defensive team that rivals this one is the 2018 team that was 26-4, made 24 errors in 30 games, and previously held the record for highest run differential (+39) in the NCS Tournament. Both the 2018 and 2025 teams compiled a .973 fielding percentage with the 2018 team allowing 16 unearned runs. There were 35 double plays turned by the 2018 team and 39 double plays turned by this year's NorCal champions, including a huge one in the final inning of the season (The record for double plays was 49 by the 2021 team in just 24 games! The 2021 team made 55 errors and had a .925 fielding percentage.).
In terms of run prevention, this was the best Spartans team since the 2019 team allowed just 1.7 runs per game. This year's squad allowed just 2.0 runs per game which is third all time as the 2016 team has the record of allowing only 1.6 runs/game. The 2016 Spartans also are the only team to post more shutouts (12) than this year's team (11). Â The 2016 (0.91 ERA), 2018 (1.58 ERA) and 2019 (0.88 ERA) teams are the only ones to have posted a better team ERA than this year's 1.74 mark. WHIP (walks + hits divided by innings pitched) is a popular statistic to quantify how good pitching staffs are at limiting baserunners. This year's team WHIP of 1.00 was second only to the 0.97 mark by the 2019 studs who also have the record for lowest batting average allowed (.167) in a season. This year's staff held opponents to a .194 batting average which is second all-time and also walked just 2.1 batters per game which is the best mark of any of the past 11 NCS Championship teams.
Offensively, there have been only four Spartans teams in the last 21 years who have averaged more runs than this year's team that averaged 8.0 runs. The 2021 Spartans scored the most at 8.8 runs per game, followed by 2007 and 2018, which both averaged 8.5 runs per contest, while the 2023 NorCal champions averaged 8.25 runs, including a ridiculous 9.4 runs per game in the playoffs. One of the most heavily used stats to measure offense is OPS (On base percentage + slugging percentage) and this year's Spartans posted a robust .949 OPS, which is in the top five all-time. The 2018 team has the record mark with a 1.030 OPS while 2021 had a .959 OPS, followed by .956 in 2024, and .951 in 2023.
The 2025 Spartans may have had the best team speed of any squad and that was evident with the defensive heroics and also on the basepaths
. This year's squad stole 102 bases, an average of over three stolen bases per game! For context on what a ridiculous number this is, the next closest team in the last 21 years was the 2023 Spartans who stole 80, the 2012 team finished with 73 steals, and the 2021 squad had 66. That speed also led to a record 21 triples.
Additionally, the 2025 team's 141 walks was only surpassed by the 146 from the 2023 team. The 20 home runs trail only 2018 (29), 2022 (22), and 2024 (22) and, of course, this year's team hit home runs to right field over a 40-foot net that wasn't there in prior seasons. Individually, Antonio Castro set the single-season RBI record with 45 this year while Tyler Spangler tied Anthony Martinez (2022) with 10 home runs in a season.
When it comes to analyzing this year's team compared to others, we're not forgetting about win-loss records and this season's winning percentage (.879) is fourth only to 1997 (25-3, .893), 2016 (25-3), and the best all-time mark of 29-1 (.967) by the 2019 team. Schedule-strength is very difficult to quantify and the Spartans make a habit of scheduling as tough as they can in the non-league each season. This year's team can be remembered as beating the three best teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section, defeating the Central Coast Section champions two times, and also three wins against a Foothill team that is among the top 25 teams in the state.
This year's team finished 11th nationally by MaxPreps and third in the final state rankings by CalHiSports, which has served as the ultimate authority on state rankings and records for the past five decades. Considering De La Salle won  state  team of the year in 2019 and 2022, those teams are likely recognized as the best ever Spartans teams by CalHiSports. It's difficult to argue against the 2019 Spartans and the 29-1 overall record which had the Spartans ranked not only as the best team in the state but one of the best in the country. It was a team that sent Harrison and a number of players to professional baseball. It remains to be seen what the 2025 team will do in college and beyond but we know they were led by an offensive trio that might be better than any threesome of all-time Spartans. Spangler, Castro, and Alec Blair combined for 20 home runs, 27 doubles, a .428 average and a 1.330 OPS with Blair regarded as the 49th best eligible player by mlb.com heading into the 2025 draft and Spangler is regarded as one of the top 5 players in the country for the Class of 2026. And who is to say the 2026 team won't be in the conversation with a loaded staff returning, including one of the best pitchers from the Class of 2026, Graham Schlicht, coming off a season with an 11-0 record and a 0.67 ERA.
The bottom line is, whether you think they're the best or not, the 2025 group goes down at the very least as one of the two best defensive Spartans squads of all-time, the team with the most team speed, one of the three best pitching staffs, and one of the top five offenses of all De La Salle teams and that's pretty amazing considering the company.
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