Two of this week’s honorees are Kadyn Sanchez from Santa Clara of Oxnard & Brad Blankenheim (Amador of Sutter Creek). Photos: SportsRecruits.com & Jordan Georgeson / Gold Country Media.
One of those being singled out this week is from a high school in Santa Clara while another is from parochial school Santa Clara of Oxnard. Both of those are softball players. Our visits this week in baseball, meanwhile, are to San Diego for Southern California and Sutter Creek in Amador County for Northern California. Note that next week will be the final edition of our players of the week feature for the 2025-26 school year so if you haven’t nominated someone it’s your last chance.
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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
Softball Player of the Week
Kadyn Sanchez (Santa Clara, Oxnard) Sr.
Our first player to recap this week will be playing in a CIF Southern Section D5 playoff game on Wednesday vs Patriot of Riverside so there is a chance that some may be reading this after Kadyn’s season has ended. We hope not, but either way it’s been a great season for her.
In the first two CIFSS D5 playoff games for Sanchez and the Saints, she was outstanding at the plate and in the circle. First, in a 6-3 triumph over Jurupa Hills, Kadyn pitched a three-hitter and struck out 12 plus she went 2-for-3 with a home run. Then later in a 8-1 win against Anaheim High, Sanchez added a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts plus she went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Beginning with a 4-for-4 outing in her first game, Kadyn hasn’t cooled off much as a batter all season. She entered this week ranked among the reported state leaders with a .621 batting average on 36 hits, including six doubles, nine triples, two homers and 25 RBI.
It’s the pitching, though, that has gained Sanchez the most attention. Last week’s games put her record at 12-2 with a 0.85 ERA. She also has 199 strikeouts in 99 1/3 innings (which like her batting average is among the reported state leaders). Kadyn’s season highs include 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning win vs Foothill Tech of Ventura and a no-hitter with 15 strikeouts in seven innings vs Fillmore.
In addition to softball, Sanchez has been a stellar student with a 4.67 GPA. She has signed to play next and go to college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Junior Jose Partida of San Diego Cathedral Catholic can be an outstanding hitter, but he’s being honored this week for pitching. Photo: Cathedral Catholic HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Jose Partida (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego) Jr.
This week’s SoCal baseball winner also is from a team playing on Wednesday, but even if the Dons were to get upset in their first CIF San Diego Section Open Division playoff game their season isn’t over since San Diego uses a double-elimination bracket for its early rounds. We say upset because Cathedral Catholic is the top seed and has been the front-running team in San Diego all season and this week moved up to No. 9 in the state (our rankings) with a 24-4 record.
Cathedral Catholic also has been one of the top baseball schools in San Diego and in the state since it opened in 2005 as a continuation of the previous University of San Diego High. But it its history until Jose came along last week had never had a perfect game pitching performance. Partida did it in a 8-0 win over University City of San Diego last week in the final game of the regular season. Twelve of the 21 straight batters that he faced went down on strikeouts. The other nine were cleanly retired by the Dons’ defense.
Partida, a junior who has committed to Arizona State, gave a clue as to how locked in he might be in his previous start when he threw a two-hitter over seven innings with no walks and eight strikeouts in a 6-0 victory vs the school’s arch-rivals from St. Augustine. For the season, Jose has a 7-2 record with a 1.45 ERA plus 66 strikeouts in 57 innings.
As a left-hander still growing into his 6-foot-2, 190-pound frame, it could be a big summer coming up for Jose. He has been reported consistently hitting 91 mph on his fastball and he has been throwing a good mix of pitches to get batters out. He also bats in the Cathedral Catholic lineup with a .298 average and nine RBI.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Brad Blankenheim (Amador, Sutter Creek) Sr.
For our stop to find this week’s NorCal baseball honoree, we head up into the Gold Country of Amador County southeast of Sacramento to check on a player who’s been among the reported leaders in the state for scoring runs. In fact, until games were added to the MaxPreps’ leaderboard on Tuesday, Blankenheim was tied for the reported state lead in runs with 51.
Brad’s honor for this week comes after another solid week for the Buffaloes, but it was in a best-of-three series vs Bear River of Lake of the Pines in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D5 playoffs. He’s also being singled out this week as a nod to the overall season that he’s had thus far.
In Amador’s 9-3 win over Bear River to start last week, Blankenheim went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. The Buffaloes (24-5-1) then completed a sweep of the series against the Bruins with an 8-3 victory. Brad went 2-for-4 in that game as well with a run scored and an RBI.
With the championship game coming up on Friday vs top seed and 28-3 Ripon Christian, Blankenheim has a .542 batting average on the season with 58 hits to go with the 51 runs. He also has seven homers and 37 RBI. We just checked through the top 200 reported batting average leaders on MaxPreps and Brad’s total of 58 is unmatched. In fact, it already will be enough to get him a listing on the all-time state list. Since the team also has qualified for the CIF NorCal regional playoffs and he could potentially play in four more games, the SJS and NorCal record of 68 hits set in 1988 by Brett Jenkins from Cordova of Rancho Cordova may be reachable.
Last fall, Blankenheim showed his athleticism as a running quarterback for the Amador football team. He only passed for 581 yards in nine reported games, but rushed for 940 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Tyler Scott of Santa Clara Wilcox is one of those players who can do exceptional things as a hitter and pitcher. Photo: Wilcox HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Tyler Scott (Wilcox, Santa Clara) Sr.
For our final stop this week we head to a school not far from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara where the last Super Bowl was played and where World Cup soccer games will be played this summer. It’s there where we find our NorCal girls softball player honoree for this week who has shown she can get it done both as a pitcher and hitter.
In a 12-0 win to end the regular season last week against Los Altos, Scott had a season high for RBI with six and went 2-for-3 with one homer and two runs scored. Earlier in the week when the Bruins (17-7) posted a 12-1 win over Saratoga, Tyler went 3-for-4 with three RBI. For the season as a batter, she’ll head into Saturday’s CIF Central Coast Section D1 playoff game vs Hillsdale of San Mateo with a .456 batting average plus eight doubles, two homers and 31 RBI.
On the pitching side of things, Scott has been roughed up a couple of times, but not recently. In the 12-0 win vs Los Altos, she was credited with her first no-hitter of the season since it was a five-inning game. She had four strikeouts and no walks. Her top outing previously was a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory vs Mountain View High. Her previous outing before the no-hitter also was against Mountain View and in that game (also a 6-0 win) she had a three-hitter over six innings with nine strikeouts. Her season stats after last week had her at 7-1 with a 1.99 ERA plus 63 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings.
Tyler is proud to represent her school and also has maintained a 4.0 GPA.
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