Two of this week’s first NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week for softball & baseball are Miranda Swanson and Niko Navarro. Photos: Harold Abend & Student Sports.
With these honors switching to softball and baseball this week, it’s mostly slugging that has gotten our attention. This week’s best are from Sacramento, Rancho Cucamonga, Petaluma and Orange.
To nominate a player for next week, email markjtennis@gmail.com by Monday at 12 noon and be sure to include a photo that we can use (which means it’s not from the local newspaper or from another web site). Please feel free to call at 209-463-9050 as well both for nominations or to see if your business or small company would like to become a sponsor for this weekly content.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north. Writeups this week by Paul Muyskens and Harold Abend.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Grant Dragmire (Bradshaw Christian, Sacramento) Sr.
A two-sport standout who has seen his name get listed in our state stat stars honor roll during football, Grant is off to a scorching start to his senior season on the baseball diamond.
Entering this week, he is hitting .800 with 20 runs batted in and has two wins while on the mound. With his best performance of the season on the mound, he pitched three scoreless innings with five strikeouts and one allowed during a 14-4 win over San Juan of Citrus Heights. Already with several multiple-hit games this season, he also had his first four-hit game of the season by going 4-for-4 with three doubles and two runs batted in.
Last season, Dragmire was on the mound and picked up the win while also hitting a home run when the Pride captured their second CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI championship in a row and third in the last four years.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Niko Navarro (Los Osos, Rancho Cucamonga) Sr.
Committed to San Diego State, this senior had a huge game at the plate during a 21-8 win for the Grizzlies over Etiwanda. Navarro hit his first three home runs of the season all in one game. For the day, the third baseman also finished 4 for 5 at the plate with six runs batted in as Los Osos ended a three-game losing streak with their third win of the season.
Last summer, Navarro tried out for the prestigious Milwaukee Brewers’ Area Code Games team and made it onto the roster. It’s therefore safe to say he’s one of the top third base prospects in the state.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Miranda Swanson (Petaluma) Sr.
The Trojans’ catcher has an Arizona-bound teammate, Joelle Krist, that gets most of the props, but last week the senior had a performance in an 11-0 win over crosstown arch-rival Casa Grande she will remember for the rest of her life.
Swanson went 3-for-4 with two three-run home runs and an RBI double that gave her seven RBIs and three runs scored.
“It’s kind of unbelievable – and to play as well as I did not feeling well,” Swanson told correspondent Harold Abend. “I was sick the last couple of days and I wasn’t sure I could play today, but I just couldn’t miss the game against our biggest rivals.”
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Maddy Dwyer (Lutheran, Orange) Soph.
A sophomore who was among the finalists to be our State Freshman of the Year last season, Dwyer did it all during a 16-2 win last week over Esperanza of Anaheim. She pitched four shutout innings with 10 strikeouts to pick up the win while also being a powerful force at the plate for the undefeated Lancers.
Despite getting just two hits on the day, Dwyer was huge part of a nine-run second inning in that game. She led off the inning with a solo home run and later that inning would come up with the bases loaded and came through with a grand slam home run. Dwyer’s two homers in one inning ties a Cal-Hi Sports state record that was first accomplished in 1998 by Hillary Hamilton from Edison of Huntington Beach.
Dwyer had two other pitching wins last week to help the Lancers improve to 14-0. They should continue to make big moves in this week’s new State Top 20 and in the FullCountSoftball.com FAB 50 national rankings.
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
