Two of this week’s honorees are Olivia LePage of Thousand Oaks (left) and Isaac Orozco from South of Torrance. Photos: sportsrecruits.com & X.com.
One of our four honorees for this week also will get a mention in the state record book for most RBI in one game. Another had a Tuesday afternoon result we waited to include and she hit a homer in a big win. Our visits this week are to Torrance and Thousand Oaks in Southern California and to Sacramento and Le Grand in Northern California.
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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
Isaac Orozco (South, Torrance) Sr.
We begin this week’s tour of the state in the far south part of L.A. County actually not far north of the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific Coast Highway starts to hit the Palos Verdes Peninsula if you’re driving from south to north. It’s where we find our SoCal baseball winner for this week after he led the Spartans to a pair of wins last week that enabled them to clinch the title of the Pioneer League.
The clincher was an 8-0 win over North of Torrance in a game in which Isaac pitched a one-hitter with nine strikeouts. He also went 1-for-2 as a batter. Orozco obviously didn’t pitch when the two teams played earlier in the week, but he went 1-for-3 with two RBI at the plate in a 8-7 triumph.
Orozco, a 6-foot-6, 225-pounder who throws left-handed, was just about as dominant on the mound in his previous start, which was a 1-0 victory vs Wiseburn DaVinci of El Segundo. In that game, he had a two-hitter and struck out 11. The two outings also helped improve Isaac’s season totals to 4-1 with a 1.52 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings.
The season hitting totals haven’t been as impressive, but Orozco hit his third homer of the season on April 25 to help South get past Peninsula of Rolling Hills Estates, 6-3. He also had 19 RBI and seven doubles heading into a game this week vs St. Bernard of Playa del Rey.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Sam Amezcua (Bradshaw Christian, Sacramento) Jr.
For our second stop this week, we head to southeast Sacramento off of Calvine Road to a school we went to last football season for a game between Bradshaw Christian and Liberty Ranch of Galt. It’s at Bradshaw where we find our NorCal baseball player of the week and a young man who played quarterback in that football game.
Sam is a three-sport athlete at Bradshaw Christian and is one of the top players on the baseball team this spring. It’s a school well-known for baseball success, including 32-1 and 27-4 records in just the past two seasons.
Bradshaw Christian played Woodland Christian last week in a non-league matchup between two of the top small school programs in Northern California. The Lions won, 9-4. Amezcua pitched and picked up the win with two runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings. He also went 3-for-4 at the plate with three RBI.
For the season for the 22-4 Lions heading into a first-round CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D4 playoff game on Wednesday vs Nevada Union of Grass Valley, Sam has the top batting average at .451 on 23 hits and 17 RBI. He also leads the team in strikeouts with 34 and has a 3-2 record with a 2.38 ERA.
In the 2025-26 season for Bradshaw Christian in basketball, Amezcua averaged 10.6 points and 3.2 assists per game. The team doesn’t throw much in football but Sam started all 12 games and had eight TD passes with three TD runs.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Olivia LePage (Thousand Oaks) Soph.
The Lancers completed their regular season on Tuesday night with a 4-3 win in 11 innings over Agoura and in that game Olivia hit her 16th home run, which is just two off of the reported state lead.
This honor is for what she more specifically did last week, beginning with her going 3-for-3 with two homers and seven RBI in a 14-1 rout of Newbury Park. LePage didn’t homer in the biggest win of the season for Thousand Oaks later in the week, but she went 1-for-2 and teammate Penelope Yeomans homered as the Lancers edged Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, 3-2, and handed that team just its third loss of the season.
LePage hit seven homers as a freshman last season for the Lancers, but that has served just as a warm-up for this year. In addition to last week’s multi-homer game vs Newbury Park, Olivia has done that in three other games (Calabasas, Madera and Chaminade of West Hills were the opponents). Last week’s seven RBI was a season-high, but she’s also had five RBI in two other games.
For the season, with the CIF Southern Section playoffs set to start next week, LePage has a .472 batting average with 47 RBI to go with those 16 homers. She also has six doubles and 28 runs scored.
Ava Avila of LeGrand is piling up the strikeouts and RBI as a star player to watch with one more season of high school ball to go. Photo: lghs_softball / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Ava Avila (Le Grand) Jr.
For our final stop this week, we go to another school we’ve been to before for a football game and it’s in the small town of Le Grand, located a few miles east of Highway 99 in Merced County and about as far south as you can go in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section before you hit the county line of Madera (which is where the CIF Central Section starts).
Ava is a small school softball superstar this season for the Bulldogs and she showed why for different reasons in a pair of games last week. First, in a 13-0 romp past Waterford, Avila finished 4-for-4 with her bat and none of those four hits were singles. Three were doubles and one was a homer and it all added up to 10 RBI. That’s a total that will go into our state single-game records. Then later in a 6-0 win vs Stone Ridge Christian of Merced, Ava went 3-for-3 as a batter with one RBI but it was her pitching that stole the spotlight. She had a one-hitter with nine strikeouts.
As a pitcher, and including a win on Monday vs Gustine but not a game on Wednesday vs Mariposa County, Avila ranks among the state leaders in strikeouts with 195 in 112 2/3 innings. She’s had two seven-inning no-hitters and one five-inning no-hitter and has an 15-1 record with a 0.56 ERA. As a batter, she entered Wednesday’s game with a .642 average with nine homers and 54 RBI.
With still one year to go for her high school career, Avila is likely to end up on several all-time state lists. She had 61 RBI as a sophomore and has 23 career homers. She also has a 36-3 record as a pitcher with 522 strikeouts.
Le Grand was looking to complete a 12-0 league record on Wednesday and would then be going into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D6 playoffs.
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