Nick Park (top row to right of coach) celebrates with his teammates after North Hollywood won CIF L.A. City Section title at Dodger Stadium. At right, is Salinas High standout Abi Jones, who has committed to San Jose State. Photos: CIF LA City Section & Twitter.com.
Over the years that we’ve been doing this feature, our final week of each school year has always been at the conclusion of the baseball/softball section playoffs, and that is this week. With the CIF Southern Section having concluded last weekend, we had to find our SoCal winners in the CIF Los Angeles City Section and the CIF San Diego Section. Despite the choices being limited with so few teams in action, we have some very solid performances to honor in the final week. Our final stops are in North Hollywood and Poway in Southern California, and in Northern California we visit Roseville and Salinas.
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Notes: For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Thanks very much to everyone throughout the 2023-24 school year who nominated football players, boys basketball players, girls basketball players, baseball players and softball players to this feature.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Nick Park (North Hollywood) Jr.
The CIF Los Angeles City Section is our destination in the search for the Southern California Baseball Player of the Week, and although our honoree is from the San Fernando Valley and the North Hollywood District of the City of Los Angeles where Park plays and attends school at North Hollywood High, it was at Chavez Ravine and at Dodger Stadium where he had the performance that earned this week’s honors.
Talk about drama. Not only was the LA City Section Division I championship at Dodger Stadium, and a dream come true for any high school baseball player to be able to play there, the two teams competing for the title, North Hollywood and Banning of Wilmington, had not won a section title since 1957 and 1961, respectively.
To top it off, the game went to extra innings, and you guessed it, Park had a hand in delivering North Hollywood its first championship in 67 years.
Park had two triples in the game and he ended up going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, but with the score tied 1-1 after seven innings, it was his second triple in the eighth inning that drove in the go ahead run of what turned out to be a 3-1 Huskies’ victory. Nick also scored a run.
Two weeks ago in a second round 12-inning 6-5 victory over Los Angeles Garfield, Park didn’t hit any balls out of the park, but he did have four hits and scored four times.
Park and his Huskies’ teammates season continues on Tuesday when No. 8 seed North Hollywood visits top-seeded Chino Hills in the CIF Southern Regional Division IV playoffs.
Alexis Huey of Poway doesn’t get rattled in pressure situations. Photo: Poway HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Alexis Huey (Poway) Sr.
We head to the CIF San Diego Section in search of the Southern California Softball Player of the Week and we find this week’s honoree just north of the City of San Diego and around three miles due east of the I-15 in Poway at Poway High.
With respect to Huey, the second time like the first time was definitely a charm. Trailing 5-0 to second-seeded Del Norte of San Diego going to the bottom of the seventh in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship, top-seeded Poway came to life.
The Titans scratched and clawed their way to four runs, and all of a sudden it was 5- 4 with two outs and with Huey at the plate the tying and winning runs were on base. You guessed it. She smoked a double that drove in both runners and Poway had a 6-5 walk-off title game victory.
We mentioned that the second time was a charm. In some respects, it was déjà vu because in last year’s San Diego Section Open Division championship Huey produced a walk-off winner. That time the Titans were trailing neighboring San Diego Rancho Bernardo 2-1 going to the bottom of the eighth. They scored a run to tie it and that brought Huey to the plate. She hit a hot smash that was mishandled and allowed the winning run to score in a 3-2 Poway victory.
This year, Alexis and her Titans’ teammates will be moving on to the CIF Southern Regional Division I playoffs as the No. 2 seed where they will face Valley View of Moreno Valley on Tuesday.
Last year, as the top seed in D1, Poway made it all the way to the championship before falling to No. 2 seed Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, 1-0.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Abi Jones (Salinas) Sr.
Whenever we visit Salinas, and Salinas High in particular, we like to remind readers that famous American writer and 1962 Nobel Prize winner for Literature John Steinbeck is an alumnus of Salinas High.
Steinbeck made the Salinas Valley the setting for his 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath” and while Abi may not be famous like Steinbeck, Jones has put Salinas on the Northern California softball map after her most recent performance.
Last week, in a 7-5 CIF Central Coast Section Division I championship game victory by fourth-seeded Salinas over No. 3 seed Monterey, Abi made the Salinas faithful real happy after getting it done not only in the circle, but at the plate as well. The Cowboys’ girls senior pitcher mowed down 17 batters by strikeout and added a two-
run double with bat in hand.
The victory helped erase the memory of Jones giving up a walk-off home run to Monterey in last year’s 4-2 CIFCCS D2 title-game loss to the same Monterey team. It was also the first Central Coast Section championship for Salinas in 27 years.
Jones set the table for Salinas with her two previous playoff appearances. In the semifinals, she tossed a four-hitter with 11 strikeouts in a 2-0 shutout of The King’s Academy of Sunnyvale. In that game, she also had an RBI single. In the quarterfinals, and in a 5-1 victory on the road at Sobrato of Morgan Hill, Abi had a three-hitter with 17 strikeouts. In that game, she provided most of the offense as well after doubling and driving in four runs.
So far this season, and heading into a CIF Northern Regional Division II opener for the No. 4 seed against visiting Rocklin, Jones is 15-8 with a 1.73 ERA and 285 strikeouts in 165.1 innings pitched. Jones is also hitting .324 with six home runs, a triple, three doubles and 16 runs batted in. The 285 strikeouts is currently the No. 6 reported mark in the state and tops in the Central Coast Section.
Trevor Wilson delivers a pitch earlier this season for Oakmont of Roseville. Photo: Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Trevor Wilson (Oakmont, Roseville) Jr.
To find the final Northern California Baseball Player of the Week for this season, we head around 20 miles northeast of the state capitol on the I-80 corridor and land in Roseville around a mile east of the interstate at Oakmont High.
At Oakmont, we honor a pitcher and slugger who got it done both on the mound and at the plate, and his heroics earned Oakmont a second straight CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D3 championship.
Last Thursday, in a 3-0 shutout victory over Central Catholic of Modesto in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 3 title game, Wilson went all the way and the junior right-hander who recently committed to UC Riverside tossed a two-hitter with no walks and 11 big strikeouts to secure the championship. With bat in hand, he had a single and scored.
It was the second straight SJS championship for Oakmont after the Vikings were victorious in the Division 4 title game last year with a win over Woodland.
So far this season for the 27-7 Vikings, and heading into a CIF Northern Regional Division III first round match-up for top-seeded Oakmont versus visiting Gridley, Wilson is 9-1 with a 0.91 ERA and 86 strikeouts with only 16 walks in 69 innings pitched.
Trevor is also hitting for a .392 average with a triple, six doubles, 22 RBI and 28 runs scored.
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
