Two of this week’s honorees are Keira Beierly from Chaparral of Temecula (left) and Danny Mercado from Casa Grande of Petaluma. Photos: X.com & Casa Grande HS / MaxPreps.com.
One of the four honorees this week had a performance nominated by our own Harold Abend during the middle of a move from Petaluma to Orange County. Another is a younger sister of the quarterback from last season’s state/national championship football team. The four are from Petaluma and San Bruno in Northern California and Rancho Cucamonga and Temecula in Southern California.
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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.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Danny Mercado (Casa Grande, Petaluma) Sr.
We start out this week’s journey around the state in Sonoma County in the Redwood Empire town known as the “Egg Capital of the World.” It’s also been the home of longtime Cal-Hi Sports associate editor Harold Abend for 17 years, who moved from Petaluma over the weekend to Orange County. Before he left, however, he nominated a player from the town to be this week’s NorCal honoree and it held up.
“It might seem like a coincidence that Mercado finds himself winning this award for a recent performance in my last few days in Petaluma, but in reality things happen for a reason,” Abend said. “Not only is the UC Riverside-commit a star athlete that could be a three-sport standout, but more than one coach at Casa Grande said he’s one of the most popular and thoughtful students on campus.”
Last week, in a Vine Valley Athletic League 3-0 blanking of Sonoma Valley of Sonoma, Mercado did more than blank the Dragons, he took a perfect game into the bottom of the seventh, but as often happens, the Casa Grande star quarterback turned ace pitcher gave up a bloop single and the perfect game and no hitter was spoiled. Danny retired the final batter so he still threw a one-hitter with 15 strikeouts.
Mercado is also the Gauchos leading hitter and in the Sonoma Valley game he was 2-for-2 with a walk, sacrifice fly and two runs batted in.
So far this season for 14-3 Casa Grande and heading into a Tuesday match-up at home against cross-town arch rival Petaluma, Mercado is 6-1 with two saves, a 1.07 ERA and 57 strikeouts and only four walks in 39.1 innings pitched. At the plate he’s hitting .462 with two home runs, a triple, eight doubles, 17 RBI and 19 runs scored, plus he’s stolen 12 bases.
As a dual-threat quarterback last season for the 8-3 Gauchos, Mercado passed for 1,673 yards and 23 TDs with only three interceptions, and he ran for a team-leading 687 yards and nine touchdowns.
“Mercado is one of the best athletes to ever come out of Casa Grande, but what people may not see is the outstanding character that goes with his next level talent,” said Casa Grande head baseball coach Pete Sikora in a comment he gave to Harold. “Danny always has a smile on his face and keeps thigs upbeat.”
“He’s the first guy to help with set up or clean up and after practice he’s hitting ground balls to his teammates to help with their defense, and he’s taking extra hacks with his teammates in the cage too,” Sikora continued. “He even served as the team manager for the basketball team when he could have been a big star if he decided to play, but one of his goals is to play D1 baseball and we’re thrilled he’s getting that opportunity at Riverside.”
Avery Motroni from Capuchino of San Bruno connects for a home run during 2024 CCS D2 championship game. Photo: Nathan Mollat / San Mateo Daily Journal.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Avery Motroni (Capuchino, San Bruno) Sr.
We head back south on the 101 freeway from Petaluma down through San Francisco and land further down the Peninsula in San Bruno in search for our NorCal Softball Player of the Week. It’s there in San Mateo County where we find Motroni, an old-school catcher who can smack the ball around the yard as well.
Last year as a junior, together with older sister Dana, Motroni helped Capuchino capture the CIF Central Coast Section D2 championship. This year’s team also has had some big wins, including those against Monterey, Livermore and Valley Christian (San Jose). A recent loss to Hillsdale is all that prevents the Mustangs from perhaps being inside the State TOP 25 rankings.
Motroni had two strong outings last week. In a 11-4 triumph against Aragon of San Mateo, Avery went 3-for-4 with one homer and two RBI. Then later in the week, she went 2-for-2 with a homer and two RBI in a 11-1 victory vs Carlmont of Belmont.
For the season, Motroni is leading the Mustangs in batting average (.558) and hits (24). She is tied with freshman teammate Star Gutierrez in homers (three) and is one behind Gutierrez in RBI with 16.
Combined with her catching skills, strong arm (she was Capuchino’s flag football quarterback) and bat, Motroni was a highly valued recruit in the Class of 2025 for softball. She ended up committing and signing with Arizona State.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Keira Beierly (Chaparral, Temecula) Jr.
If that last name at Chaparral is familiar, it should be. Keira, who goes by “KeKe,” is the younger sister of former Chaparral football quarterback Dash Beierly. Dash played last fall as the starting QB at Mater Dei of Santa Ana after transferring there from Chaparral. He’s now at Washington after graduating early and after helping the Monarchs go 12-0 and win the CIF Open Division state title with a final, consensus national No. 1 ranking.
Little sis isn’t going to have a chance to win a CIF Open title only because there isn’t one in softball. Beierly has been on an absolute tear hitting the ball in recent weeks and is now among the reported state home run leaders.
Last week began for Keira when she blasted a pair of homers and went 2-for-3 with four RBI in a 12-11 victory against Temecula Valley of Temecula. That was after she had two homers and four RBI in her previous game from the previous week. The week continued with Beierly going 3-for-3 with a run scored in a 6-2 loss to Great Oak of Temecula. The week then ended with Keira going 3-for-5 with a homer, double and three RBI in a 10-9 slugfest win against Lakeside of Lake Elsinore.
For the season, and not counting any outings from this week, Beierly is reported with 14 homers, 28 RBI and a .596 batting average. When she’s blasting the ball over the fence, there’s no need for Keke to “dash” around the bases. A home run trot is all that’s needed.
Jacob Peyton had the two huge homers for Rancho Cucamonga last week in its 3-0 series sweep vs Los Osos and he struck out 12 in the game he pitched. Photo: 210prepsports.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Jacob Peyton (Rancho Cucamonga) Sr.
We wrap up our travels in the San Bernardino County community of more than 170,000 residents that’s not far from the easternmost boundary with Los Angeles County. It’s there where we find Peyton, who was the key figure in last week’s big Baseline League series between Rancho Cucamonga and Los Osos High, which is the other school in the league with a Rancho Cucamonga address.
Entering the week, Los Osos was the higher ranked team with a 12-3 record and some impressive wins. When the three games were over, however, the Grizzlies were staggered with three straight losses. Rancho Cucamonga’s three straight wins also pushed its own season record to 16-3 and put the Cougars inside this week’s new State TOP 35 rankings.
Peyton only had a walk in the first game of the series, but in game two he came through with a two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and he finished 2-for-4 at the plate. In the third game, Jacob put his handprints all over a 5-2 victory for the Cougars. Holding a bat, he connected for a three-run homer. That also was the game that Peyton pitched and he wound up with a five-hitter and struck out 12.
Jacob is a four-year varsity player for Rancho Cucamonga, but is coming off a junior season in which he only hit .218 with no homers. He also only pitched 17 2/3 innings. He’s been one of the most improved players in Southern California. Entering this week, Peyton was batting .400 with five homers and 23 RBI. He also was 5-0 as a pitcher with a 0.80 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 35 innings.
Mark Tennis 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.
