Two of our final honorees for this school year are hitting star Giuseppi Bianchi (left) of Chico High and dominating pitcher Liliana Escobar from JSerra of San Juan Capistrano. Photos: Chico HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com & jserra.softball / Instagram.com.
Since we will be knee deep in NorCal & SoCal regional playoffs next week, this will be the final edition of our players of the week feature for the 2025-26 school year. Thanks to all who nominated players since August of last year in football. We end with visits in Northern California to Chico and Chowchilla. For the south, it will be in the Tujunga area of L.A. and way down south in San Juan Capistrano.
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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 Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Giuseppe Bianchi (Chico) Jr.
What a school year it has been at Chico High of the CIF Northern Section. The Panthers not only got the best of their arch-rivals from Pleasant Valley in the Butte County college town this year, but last week they completed a sweep of winning the Northern Section top divisional titles in football, boys basketball and baseball with a 13-0 romp past Foothill of Palo Cedro.
Bianchi was the one who took advantage the most in the one-sided section final. He ended 2-for-3 with two homers, three runs scored and seven RBI. Earlier in the section semifinals, which was a 5-2 win for the Panthers over Pleasant Valley, Bianchi went 3-for-3 with a double and one RBI.
A late season surge by Giuseppe also saw him go 2-for-3 with three RBI in a win vs Enterprise of Redding and 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI in a win vs Foothill. With Chico (22-8) expected to go on into next week’s CIF NorCal regional playoffs, Bianchi isn’t done with his season totals of 37 hits, 32 RBI, nine doubles, four homers and a .457 batting average.
Bianchi and his teammates also were successful in winning their third straight section title. He’s a catcher/third baseman for position and also plays for the Alpha baseball club based in San Rafael.
Heaven Moore has been a hitting standout at Chowchilla throughout her four-year high school career and is now having some success as a pitcher. Photo: chstribe softball / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Heaven Moore (Chowchilla) Sr.
For our final NorCal softball honoree of the season, the visit is to a Sacramento Valley town we go through often on Highway 99 south of Merced and north of Madera. The school is in Madera County and therefore is in the CIF Central Section.
On Thursday, the Chowchilla softball team is playing Hanford West for the CIF Central Section D3 championship. Moore is a player we’ve written up for stat stars several times in her career, but this time she’s a player of the week. Hanford West slugging standout Karmen Vasquez has been a player of the week in her career as well. It’s a good bet that Heaven will be handing out walks to Vasquez as most pitchers have been doing that this season against her.
The Tribe is taking a 21-6-1 record into the title game. In a 10-6 win last week over Reedley in the quarterfinals, Moore went 2-for-4 with four RBI and hit her eighth homer of the season. Then in a 9-0 win in the semifinals against Dinuba, Heaven added a 2-for-4 batting line with a double and one RBI but in that game she pitched and finished with 13 strikeouts in the shutout win.
Moore does not lead her team in batting average, but she is tied for having the most hits with 44, leads in RBI with 49 and leads in homers with eight. She also has a 1.52 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 87 2/3 innings as a pitcher.
For college, Heaven has signed to attend Willamette University in Salem, Ore., an NCAA D3 school.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Liliana Escobar (JSerra, SJ Capistrano) Sr.
Based on her outings last week in the CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs and how she’s done in three starts against national and state powerhouse Norco, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing Liliana pitching for the University of Florida in future games at the Women’s College World Series. That’s some great competition but racking up big totals against great competition is what Escobar has done this season.
Escobar began last week by hurling a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts to lead JSerra past Pacifica of Garden Grove (CIFSS D1 champs in 2023 and 2024), 1-0. Then in the semifinals last Saturday in a matchup with state No. 1 and national No. 3 Norco, Liliana sent the Cougars reeling with another three-hitter with 14 strikeouts. JSerra won the game, 2-0, and will now go for its first CIFSS D1 title on Friday vs La Mirada. The teams also will enter the game at No. 2 and No. 3 in the state.
Norco only lost for the third time this season in last Saturday’s semifinals, but Liliana and the Lions beat the Cougars for the second time. She had a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a 2-0 win back on March 6. Norco posted an avenging win (2-1) later in the season and even in that game Escobar was effective with just three hits allowed and 12 strikeouts.
There were a few questionable starts mixed in, but for the season Escobar will enter her final game (the Lions will be opting out of the CIF SoCal regional playoffs) with a 17-5 record, a 1.25 ERA plus 252 strikeouts in 146 innings.
Anthony Velasquez was the pitching star at Dodger Stadium for Verdugo Hills in its win vs Taft of Woodland Hills for L.A. City D1 title. Photo: Erik Boal Sports / YouTube.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Anthony Velasquez
(Verdugo Hills, Tujunga) Sr.
For our final stop of the 2025-26 school year, we head to the Tujunga community located in L.A. County north of the 210 freeway and just west of La Crescenta. Despite where it sits, Verdugo Hills High is in L.A. Unified and therefore competes in the CIF L.A. City Section. The Dons played for the CIF L.A. City Section D1 title last Saturday at Dodger Stadium and it was Velasquez who came through the most in a 3-1 triumph over Taft of Woodland Hills.
In helping Verdugo Hills to its first L.A. City title since 2018, Velasquez may not have been the first choice of head coach Angel Espindola to take the mound but he had to use his No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers in a 2-1 win in 10 innings in the semifinals against Sylmar. Anthony made it all worthwhile, however, as he allowed just one hit and struck out six in a complete-game outing. While he walked six batters, Velasquez also let the Dons’ defense make plays to prevent any more runs from scoring.
The one championship outing as a pitcher was not Anthony’s only contributions to the championship. He went 1-for-3 with a run scored as a batter in the final and in the semifinals he went 3-for-5 with a triple.
“I don’t even know how I was feeling,” Velasquez said in an interview with Tarek Fattal of High School on SI California. “I was so excited and happy to just be out there and help my team out. Around the 4th or 5th inning I started to feel more confident.”
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:
