Two of this week’s NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week are McKenna Gregory of Benicia and Trayce Tammaro of Cooncord De La Salle. Photos: benicia heraldonline.com & mikemurphybaseball.com.
We’re not waiting until tomorrow to choose power-hitting junior Trayce Tammaro of Concord De La Salle. We also write up girls who led their teams to section softball titles in Stockton and San Diego plus a former catcher who’s now mowing down hitters as a pitcher.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To find out how your business could benefit by sponsoring these honors each week or to nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com. This series ends for the 2016-2017 school year after next week so don’t wait to get in a nomination.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Trayce Tammaro (De La Salle, Concord) Jr.
Picking a great time to have his biggest performance of his junior season, Tammaro hit two home runs and drove in six runs during a 12-1 win over Granada of Livermore in the CIF North Coast Section Division I playoffs. Also hitting a double in the same game, he finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored against the Matadors.
Later in the week, Tammaro scored a run as the No. 5 seeded Spartans upset No. 4 seed Clayton Valley of Concord to advance to the section semifinals on Wednesday where they will take on No. 9 seed College Park of Pleasant Hill. On the season, Tammaro is hitting .343 with a team-best 24 runs batted in and six home runs. He nearly made it onto last year’s all-state underclass team as a sophomore and should be one of the top returning players in Northern California next season.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
McKenna Gregory (Benicia) Sr.
Public address announcers are only human and the mistake made by the one at last Saturday’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division III title game awards ceremony at Arnaiz Field in Stockton was a funny one because initially the name of Gregory wasn’t mentioned after Benicia defeated East Union of Manteca 11-1 to wrap up an outstanding season.
The error was quickly fixed. Gregory, in fact, did it all for the Panthers as they capped a 29-2-1 season that also will get them into the top 10 of the final State Top 20 rankings.
The Michigan State recruit launched a pair of homers and ended 3-for-3 with four RBI, scored three times and reached base four times. She also struck out 10 as the winning pitcher and gave up seven hits.
For the season, Gregory put up All-State first team caliber totals, including a .463 average with nine homers and 41 RBI. In addition, she went 19-2 as a pitcher with a 1.14 ERA and 204 strikeouts in 134.2 innings. Some of her career totals also are off the charts, including a .460 batting average.
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Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Jake Jackson (El Toro, Lake Forest) Sr.
This was an all-league catcher last season, but Jackson has made a home this season on the mound instead of behind it.
Jackson improved to 11-1 last week after getting the win during a 2-1 final against Foothill of Tustin in the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs. Committed to the University of Nevada, he allowed just five hits and one walk while striking out six. Using mostly his slider, Jackson retired nine of the final 11 batters he faced to hang on for the win after allowing a home run that cut the lead to one.
For Jackson’s team, it was the third straight win by one run as the Chargers advanced to the CIFSS Division I semifinals for the first time in program history.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Megan Faraimo (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego) Jr.
This UCLA committed junior did it all last week as the Dons captured the CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship with a 3-0 win over Ramona.
In the championship game that needed 10 innings to decide a winner, Faraimo pitched the complete game allowing just six hits and one walk while striking out 17.
Going 4-0 in the circle last week, she also allowed just one hit and no walks while striking out 14 during a 1-0 win over San Marcos that also saw her drive in the game’s lone run. She also homered and drove in two runs during a 3-1 win over San Marcos. Heading into those games, the Knights were the higher-ranked team and also were the defending champion.
Faraimo also happens to be one of the nation’s top recruits for the Class of 2018, according to FloSoftball.
Paul Muyskens is the Stockton office editor of Cal-Hi Sports. 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
