Two of this week’s NolCal/SoCal honorees are Sienna Kendricks of Fresno Bullard and Jake Baer from El Camino Real of Woodland Hills. Photos: Courtesy school & Twitter.com.
One of this week’s picks is a girl from Fresno who will now have two uncles playing in the NFL next season. Our other three honorees are from Placerville, Woodland Hills and Ridgecrest.
To nominate a player for next week, email markjtennis@gmail.com by Monday at 12 noon and be sure to include a photo that we can use (which means it’s not from the local newspaper or from another web site). Please feel free to call at 209-463-9050 as well both for nominations or to see if your business or small company would like to become a sponsor for this weekly content.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Matt Smith (El Dorado, Placerville) Sr.
This outfielder who has signed with Sacramento State provided one of several big bats in the lineup during a 19-0 win by the Cougars over Galt last week. During the win, he had three hits and drove three runs, but the number that stood out the most was him hitting his 13th home run of the season.
Smith hit five home runs during the first five games before a lengthy drought but has since regained his powerful form. He belted two homers in a game on April 16 and another two in a game eight days later against Kennedy of Sacramento.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Jake Baer (El Camino Real, Woodland Hills) Sr.
Following up from a game the week before that saw him go 3 for 4 with a homer during a 6-1 win over Verdugo Hills of Tujunga, Baer led the offensive attack during a 12-0 win over Granada Hills last week with a grand slam home run and finished with seven runs batted in.
With Baer leading the way, the Conquistadors were tied for first place in the West Valley League with Cleveland of Reseda, which is the team they play twice this week. They also started the week as the highest-ranked team from the L.A. City Section by the L.A. Times.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Sienna Kendricks (Bullard, Fresno) Sr.
It’s been a great week for Sienna’s family since her uncle, Eric Kendricks, the UCLA linebacker, was a second-round NFL draft selection by the Minnesota Vikings. Eric will join his brother and another of Sienna’s uncles, Mychal, in the NFL next season. He plays for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The football Kendricks brothers played at Hoover, but their niece has been a standout outfielder at Bullard. She ripped a homer, a double and had four RBI in a 19-10 win last Friday over San Joaquin Memorial that helped the Knights take over first-place in the County-Metro Athletic Conference.
Heading into the final week of the regular season, Kendricks was hitting more than .400 with nine doubles, four homers and 30 RBI. According to Bullard sports info contact Andrew Haynes, Kendricks will end her career among the all-time school top 10 in batting average, hits, doubles, homers and RBI. She will play next at La Verne University.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Taylor Sherritt (Burroughs, Ridgecrest) Jr.
With five doubles last week in two games, Sherritt has already beaten her doubles total from last season as she now has 17 doubles on the season and was hitting .712 with 31 runs batted in heading into this week.
Playing on the varsity since she was a freshman, Sherritt had 16 doubles last season as a sophomore and in her career she has 39 doubles, four triples and two home runs with over one year to go in her high school career. With a double currently in four straight games, she had three doubles last week during a 14-5 win over Sultana of Hesperia.
Writeups by Paul Muyskens & Mark Tennis. Paul is the Stockton office assistant editor for CalHiSports.com. Mark is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
