Two of this week’s honorees are Bella Fiorentino from Santa Margarita & Trevor Allen of Los Gatos. Photos: @SMCHS_Softball / Twitter.com & Rod Stuhlmuller.
It isn’t always the amazing stats we’re looking for each week when deciding these honors. It could be less amazing stats, but doing it against elite competition. That’s clearly the case for our NorCal baseball and SoCal softball honorees this week. Those two are part of a group from the communities of Los Gatos, Watsonville, Whittier and Rancho Santa Margarita that are in this week’s spotlight. Writeups this week from both Harold Abend and Mark Tennis.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Trevor Allen
(Los Gatos) Sr.
The bigger the game, then it seems to be the better that Trevor plays and pitches. The San Jose State commit threw a three-hit, five-strikeout shutout in a key 3-0 league win last week at Palo Alto. He also had two hits as a batter.
With the win, Allen also moved to 5-0 on the season. Four of those outings were against top teams, including state-ranked Archbishop Mitty and Carroll of Southlake, Texas, which had a win over defending CIF Central Coast Section Open Division champion Valley Christian.
Speaking of Valley Christian, Allen scored a run and knocked one in when Los Gatos fell 4-3 to the Warriors in the CCS Open Division final. Earlier in the playoffs, he pitched a three-hitter with six strikeouts when the Wildcats eliminated Serra of San Mateo 2-1. Over the past two years, in matchups vs. teams from the West Catholic Athletic League, Trevor is 5-0 and he may get to start on April 20 when Los Gatos plays Valley Christian in a non-league game.
Last season’s stats showed Allen with a .310 batting average plus a 5-1 pitching record and 2.30 ERA. He hasn’t been hitting as much this season, but on the mound he’s 5-0 with a 1.91 ERA.
Samantha Baer began this week with home runs in three straight games. Photo: mvcmustangs.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Samantha Baer
(Monte Vista Christian, Watsonville) Sr.
Last week we were near the Feather River in the Sacramento Valley, and this week for our Northern California softball award winner we go close to the shores of Monterey Bay to a farming community known for growing strawberries, apples and lettuce. There we find a small school slugger and pitcher that is putting up some impressive numbers at the plate and in the circle.
To say Baer has been a bear and put fear in opposing pitchers when she’s batting, or to hit against when she’s pitching, would be a bit of an understatement.
She didn’t hit or pitch in a loss to Pacific Grove last week, but in the last three games Samantha has played in she’s hit a home run in each game and also got the win in the circle.
In a 7-3 victory over Alisal of nearby Salinas, Baer hit a two-run home run, plus she pitched a two-hitter with nine strikeouts and only gave up one earned run. In a 13-0 shellacking of Soledad, Samantha only pitched three innings but gave up just one hit and fanned five in 10 batters faced. At the plate she had a home run, double, three RBI and a run scored in two plate appearances. Finally, in a 9-5 victory over a solid Stevenson of Pebble Beach, Baer was 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and a run scored. From the circle she did give up two earned runs and nine hits, but she struck out six and got a good win for the Mustangs.
So far this season, Baer is hitting .593 with six home runs, a double, 13 RBI and nine runs scored. The six home runs ties her for the No. 2 reported mark in the CIF Central Coast Section and her average and RBI are both top 20 in the section. Plus, she hasn’t struck out in 32 plate appearances. From the circle, Samantha is 5-1 for the 5-6 Mustangs with 55 strikeouts in 41 innings pitched.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Bella Fiorentino
(Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Sr.
The senior pitcher for the Lady Eagles did it all in helping Santa Margarita Catholic to three wins during the week.
Fiorentino’s all-around performance included a complete game win over Hood River Valley (Oregon) with six 6 Ks. She was also 2-for-3 at the plate. The same day, a win over Canby (Oregon) saw Fiorentino belt a home run and double with two RBI in a victory. Finally, the ace outdueled Orange Lutheran’s Miranda Stoddard, 1-0, with a complete game shutout with zero walks and five strikeouts. That win also avenged Santa Margarita’s only loss and allowed the Eagles to jump into the top 10 of this week’s state rankings.
Entering the season, Bella, who has signed with the University of Pennsylvania of the Ivy League, was hoping to step up into more of a starring role for a team that lost second team all-state pitcher Paige Vargas to graduation. She has. After the win vs. OLu, Fiorentino improved to 14-1.
Flock has been one of the reported state RBI leaders since he got eight in one game early in the season. Photo: @condorbaseball / Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Jason Flock
(California, Whittier) Sr.
For our Southern California baseball honoree we head just southeast of Los Angeles near the L.A. County border with Orange County where with the way our award winner has been smacking around the baseball it would be nice to hear that Condors fans are flocking to the ballpark to see the stroke of Flock with bat in hand.
The California second baseman doesn’t hit the long ball but with runners in scoring position Flock has been clutch, so this award like many times we’ve honored players in the past is just as much about his overall body of work this season as what he did just in last week’s games.
In the five-game Anaheim Lions Tournament that ran March 23-27 Flock helped lead California to a very decent 3-2 finish. For the five games, and despite being shut down in the first game against Mission Viejo, he had eight hits, two each in the next four games, a triple, two doubles, walk, five RBI and four runs scored, and he didn’t strike out in 17 at bats. His best game was in a 9-0 win over Jesuit of Portland, Oregon where he was 2-for-3 with a triple, double and two runs batted in.
Flock’s top game for the 11-6 Condors, who are 3-1 in the Del Rio League, came in a season-opening 12-3 win over Eastside of Lancaster when he was 4-for-5 with a double and eight RBI with a run scored. So far this season and heading into a Wednesday game at crosstown arch-rival Whittier, Jason is hitting .483 with the one triple, 12 doubles, 28 RBI, 16 runs scored, and he’s only struck out twice in 65 at-bats. His 28 RBI is the fourth highest reported total in the state.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
Mark Tennis is the editor and publisher of Cal-Hi Sports. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
