Two of our honorees this week threw back-to-back no-hitters last week. Irvine’s Drake Brito (left) is shown with catcher Nico Macalino. At right, Redwood of Larkpur’s Stella Belluomini is shown pitching last season. Photos: @Irvinebaseball / X.com & redwoodbark.com.
Have we ever had one week in the history of this feature (more than 10 years on this site) in which two of our honorees both threw back-to-back no-hitters? We’re not sure. All four of this week’s featured players did some amazing things and we’re pleased to bring their stories to a bigger audience. They hail from Irvine and Eastvale for Southern California and Carmel and Larkspur for Northern 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 Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Drake Brito (Irvine) Sr.
To find the Southern California State Baseball Player of the Week we head to Orange County and land just west of the I-5 in Irvine where we honor a 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior right-handed pitcher from Irvine High who now not only wins a statewide honor to go with local recognition, but Brito will also now go into the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book.
Last week, in a 2-0 victory over St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano, Drake did walk a batter and plunked two, but he struck out 18 of the 24 batters he faced and did not give up a hit.
The fans of the 15-12 Vaqueros might wish that Drake could pitch every day, since in his previous outing two weeks ago, and in Irvine’s game immediately preceding the no-no thrown by Brito, he no hit Sage Hill of Newport Beach in a 4-0 victory with three walks and eight strikeouts.
That’s two consecutive no-hitters and it will make the Record Book on the Most Consecutive No-Hitters list.
In a bit of a twist, it was Sage Hill pitcher Ashwin Chona that set the CIF Southern Section record of three consecutive no-hitters which he accomplished in 2017 as a sophomore. The state record is four consecutive no-nos and that has been accomplished by four players.
When we said the Irvine faithful might like to see Brito take the mound every game if that was possible, it’s also because so far this season Drake is 8-1 with a 1.56 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 63 innings pitched. He has signed with Cal Baptist.
One of the reasons there was a change atop this week’s state rankings was due to Eastvale Roosevelt’s Lotoleilei Sivas hitting two home runs in her team’s big win over previous No. 1 Norco. Photo: SportsRecruits.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Loto Sivas (Roosevelt, Eastvale) Jr.
The Inland Empire is our destination in search of the Southern California State Softball Player of the Week and it’s a stone’s throw west of the I-15 in Eastvale at Roosevelt High where we find this week’s honoree whose big bat came up huge last week and altered the new Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.
It’s been an up and down season for a Roosevelt team that has had some solid wins against ranked opponents but has also taken its share of lumps. However last week, Roosevelt became giant killers when the Mustangs were a 7-4 winner over previous top-ranked Norco and Sivas blasted two home runs and went 2-for-3 with the two round trippers, five RBI and two runs scored in the victory. Norco had clinched the league title, but the loss knocked the Cougars out of the top spot in the State TOP 25. Earlier in the week, she had two home runs and went 3-for-5 with five RBI and four runs scored. That means for the week she was 5-for-8 with four home runs, 10 RBI and six runs scored.
According to Eric-Paul Johnson of the Press Enterprise, it was the fifth two-homer game for Loto and fourth in her last five games.
Back on April 10, Johnson, Sivas’ nominator for this week’s award, called Sivas the hottest hitter in the Inland Empire after she homered in four straight games and in seven of her past eight games, and it looks like nothing has changed.
Included in that stretch was the Michelle Carew Classic when Loto showed some mojo with four home runs in the Carew, including a walk-off home run in a 10-9 victory over Canyon of Anaheim when that team was ranked No. 6 in the state rankings.
Two weeks ago, the BYU-bound Sivas hit home run No. 13 to break the school record.
So far this season and heading into a Big VIII League match-up with visiting Corona, Sivas has 17 home runs and is batting .394 with 41 RBI and 35 runs scored.
Roosevelt does not report its stats but if it did Sivas’ 17 home runs would be the No. 3 reported mark in both the state and the CIF Southern Section.
On a side note Loto, who plays the outfield and infield in softball, also excels in flag football where after making 84 pass receptions for 1,708 yards and 21 touchdowns, she was named the Press Enterprise Player of the Year.
On a final note, we know Loto would want to give a shout out to her sophomore teammate Eva Bustamante, because like Sivas she also homered twice last week against Norco.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
State Softball Player of the Week
Stella Belluomini (Redwood, Larkspur) Jr.
The search for the Northern California State Softball Player of the Week takes us to the Redwood Empire portion of the CIF North Coast Section where we land in the shadows of majestic Mt. Tamalpais in Larkspur at Redwood High to locate this week’s award winner.
Last week was a huge week for Belluomini and the Redwood Giants.
It started on the road in Novato at San Marin when Stella was only an error away from a perfect game in a 1-0 victory where she struck out 12 of the 22 batters she faced. Two days later in another Marin County Athletic League match-up with visiting Novato, Stella was the belle of the ball once again after pitching a second consecutive no hitter. This time she had three walks, a hit batter and struck out nine.
Belluomini already had an outing on Monday of this week and she tossed a 2-hitter with 10 strikeouts and three walks with no earned runs in a 5-4 victory over Archie Williams of San Anselmo.
Tossing no-nos in softball is a little more prevalent than baseball and while two consecutive no-hitters makes the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book in baseball it takes four consecutive no-nos to make the Record Book for softball, but since she’s only a junior Stella will have the rest of this season and her senior year to try and accomplish that feat.
As for this season, and heading into a Wednesday match-up with visiting Terra Linda of San Rafael, Belluomini is 10-7 with three saves an 1.89 ERA and 148 strikeouts in 141 innings pitched.
Matt Maxon of Carmel is shown hitting for his summer club team. All of the Carmel High photos we found were of him pitching. Photo: carmelhighbaseball / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
State Baseball Player of the Week
Matt Maxon (Carmel) Jr.
The Monterey Bay area of the CIF Central Coast Section and the picturesque community of Carmel-by-the-Sea, commonly known simply as Carmel, is our destination in search of the Northern California State Baseball Player of the Week and it’s at Carmel High where we find this senior two-sport star and Padres’ right-handed pitcher and slugger who’s made a commitment to Stanford.
Last week, not only did Maxon dominate at the plate but on the mound as well.
On Friday, Matt got the call to take the mound and tossed a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 7-0 victory over neighboring Monterey. He was also 2-for-4 with a run scored as a batter.
After his outing pitching on Friday, he couldn’t pitch on Saturday against Stevenson of nearby Pebble Beach, but in that contest, a 19-4 victory, Maxon took it up a notch with bat in hand after going 2-for-3 with both hits home runs, including a grand slam. Matt accounted for half the Padres’ runs with seven RBI plus two runs scored.
So far this season, and heading into a Tuesday matchup on the road in Soledad, the Padres’ junior was hitting for a .452 batting average with six home runs, two triples, four doubles, 26 RBI and 32 runs scored.
On the mound, Matt is 8-0 with a paltry 0.68 ERA and 71 strikeouts and only 14 walks in 51.2 innings pitched.
We said Maxon was a two-sport star and in fact was a key member of the Carmel football team that went 15-0 last season and won the CIF Division 5-AA Bowl Game state championship in a 48-7 rout of El Capitan of Lakeside.
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
