Two of this week’s honorees are Cooper Holland (left) from Santa Margarita of Rancho SM and Hailey Lavendier from Eastside of Lancaster. Photos: Courtesy school & triplethreatrecruit / Instagram.com.
For the second straight week, we have gone with a freshman to be in the spotlight for Southern California baseball. The SoCal softball winner is a junior who did a lot in a whopping seven games played in the week with her team. For Northern California, we have a small town slugger for baseball and a big-time pitcher-hitter in softball. Our honorees come from Rancho Santa Margarita, Lancaster, Durham and Clovis.
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Notes: For these honors, we 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
Cooper Holland (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Fr.
It was a bittersweet week for Holland and the Eagles. On one hand, the team continued to knock the ball around the yard at the Bishop Gorman tourney in Las Vegas with a 3-1 record and the loss coming to national power Stoneman Douglas of Parkland, Fla. The bad news was that returning first team all-state junior Brody Schumaker was lost for the season with a shoulder injury.
If anyone thinks that Santa Margarita still doesn’t have a national recruit in its lineup, though, meet the team’s emerging freshman star. Holland has already appeared on a top 10 list for his class in the nation and he’s been backing up that ranking so far this season.
In his best game in Vegas, Holland went 3-for-5 with a homer, double and six RBI in a 13-2 triumph vs Mountain Vista of Colorado. He ended the week with 11 RBI in four games on seven hits, including two doubles and one triple to go with the home run. He also flashed some speed with two steals. Cooper and the Eagles hope to keep hitting at their .379 clip in this week’s Trinity League series vs Servite of Anaheim.
“Holland making a loud statement this spring to take over as the No. 1 player in California’s Class 2029,” said Les Lukach of PrepBaseballCA. Another up for that label is the freshman from Dos Pueblos of Goleta, Matti DiMaggio, who Holland is following as a Cal-Hi Sports SoCal Player of the Week.
Landon Lynch of Durham had three homers in two games last week and has been hitting close to .500 so far this season. Photo: fivetool.org.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Landon Lynch (Durham) Sr.
To find our NorCal baseball honoree for this week, we go up north to Butte County to a small town and small school located south of Chico and a few miles east of Highway 99. It’s at Durham where we are highlighting the exploits of a 6-foot-2, 225-pound senior first baseman/designated hitter.
If that seems like the dimensions of a football player, that would be correct. But instead of catching passes as a tight end or making tackles as a defensive end, Lynch is putting bat on ball this season in a huge way. In a 10-6 win over Arcata to cap last week, Landon locked on to two pitches for home runs, added a double and had five RBI. On the day before, Lynch went 1-for-3 with a homer, two runs and two RBI to lead the Trojans past Weed, 15-0.
In Durham’s first game this season, Landon showed what might happen in a big way. He went 2-for-3 with a double and six RBI in a win vs Portola. Entering a game this week vs Colusa, Lynch had led Durham to a 9-0 record with a .483 batting average, four homers and 19 RBI. Landon hit .300 all of last season with 24 hits, two homers and 25 RBI.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Hailey Lavendier (Eastside, Lancaster) Jr.
It’s that spring break time of the season for many of the state’s baseball and softball players and one of the busiest softball players anywhere had to be Hailey and her teammates from Eastside High. According to their MaxPreps schedule, they played seven games last week, won six, and took an 12-1 record into this week in which they will be off on their own spring break.
Here’s what Hailey did in some of her games last week: 3-for-3 with two doubles in a 11-1 win vs Antelope Valley of Lancaster; 3-for-3 with three RBI and nine strikeouts in seven innings of pitching in a 11-4 victory against Littlerock; 3-for-3 with a triple and six RBI in a 9-5 triumph over Chavez of Delano; 3-for-4 with four runs and two RBI in a 19-3 win over Rosamond; and she pitched a shutout (six hits allowed, nine strikeouts) when the Lions blanked Ridgeview of Bakersfield, 2-0.
In 12 reported games so far this season, Lavendier has collected 31 hits in 41 at-bats for a .756 batting average plus 31 RBI and 20 runs scored. In her third game vs Rosamond in a 25-20 win, Hailey rolled up eight RBI and finished 5-for-6 (including her only home run). She also had 76 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings as a pitcher going into her next game with a 1.05 ERA.
Brooklyn Ainsworth from Buchanan of Clovis was one of the top freshmen players in Northern California last season. Photo: Buchanan athletics / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Brooklyn Ainsworth (Buchanan, Clovis) Soph.
After enjoying a breakout freshman season a year ago in helping the Buchanan softball team reach the title game of the CIF Central Section D1 playoffs (lost to Clovis North), Ainsworth has been busy hitting and pitching at an elite level in Buchanan’s 8-1 start to the current season.
According to a nomination from head coach Dean Gregory, Brooklyn had two huge double-duty performances in a pair of Buchanan wins from last week. First, she went 4-for-4 with a triple, homer and three RBI plus she pitched a two-hitter with seven strikeouts in a 9-0 romp past Monache of Porterville. Kingsburg was up next and fared only a little bit better. In a 8-3 win for Buchanan, Ainsworth tossed a four-hitter with 10 strikeouts. She also homered on offense in that game with another single and three RBI.
For the season so far for the Bears entering a Tuesday matchup this week with Madera, Ainsworth has been batting .469 with an OPS of 1.296. She scored 11 runs and had 10 RBI. For pitching, the numbers showed her with a 7-1 record, 0.89 ERA plus 70 strikeouts in 54 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: @CalHiSports
