Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week are Daniel Caruso of L.A. Loyola & Victoria Cervantes of Escondido. Photos: perfectgame.org & socalbreakers.com.
Lights, camera, action for son of major Hollywood director who pitches a no-hitter in one of the toughest leagues in the nation. This week’s three other honorees are from Escondido, San Jose and Palo Cedro. Folsom football fans also will recall with painful memories what our baseball player of the week can do on the gridiron.
Note:For purposes of this feature, we are considering the CIF Central Section to be in the north.
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).
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Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Daniel Caruso (Loyola, Los Angeles) Sr.
Looking for his first win of the season, this Baylor-bound senior picked it up in a big way as he pitched a no-hitter in a 3-0 win last week over Alemany of Mission Hills.
Helping the Cubs open up their rugged Mission League schedule with a win, Caruso walked just one batter while striking out 12.
Caruso is the son of feature film director D.J. Caruso, who wasn’t able to see the nifty no-no since he was wrapping up a shoot for the “XXX: Xander Cage Returns” movie with Vin Diesel in the Dominican Republic.
Caruso also has an older brother, Daniel, who plays baseball at Pepperdine and a younger sister, Sophia, who is a ninth-grade soccer standout.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Victoria Cervantes (Escondido) Sr.
A returning all-league player for the 10-1 Cougars, Cervantes is off to a strong start for a team that was moved into this week’s Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20.
In a 1-0 win over defending CIF San Diego Section Division I champ Poway, Cervantes pitched a two-hitter with eight strikeouts and also scored the game’s only run and had one hit offensively.
Later in the week, Cervantes pitched a six-hit shutout in a 2-0 triumph vs. Rancho Buena Vista of Vista and in the same game went 1-for-2 with two RBI.
While her team also lost to Vista last week, it has beaten the Panthers on two other occasions, which accounted for the rankings rise.
Cervantes, who is headed to Menlo College in the Bay Area, began the week with a 0.00 ERA through 28 innings of pitching to go with a .476 batting average.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Antonio Garcia (Bellarmine Prep, San Jose) Sr.
Continuing his momentum from the 2015 football season, Garcia is off to a hot start through the first nine games of the season.
At the plate, Garcia was hitting .519 at the close of last week with two doubles, two home runs and six runs batted in for the Bells. While he doesn’t have more than two hits in a game yet this season, he has scored eight times in part because of his going 7 for 8 on stolen base attempts this season.
Garcia also has been a big key defensively for the Bells, who have begun this week with seven straight wins. He has helped turn three double plays and had yet to commit an error this season.
Last fall, Antonio was a major contributor for the Bellarmine football team. He had a 26-yard touchdown run with 41 seconds left that beat Folsom in the CIF Northern California Division I-AA championship game.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Jessica Seely (Foothill, Palo Cedro) Jr.
Both in the circle and at the plate, this junior has been making an impact with the Cougars since her freshman season and she had quite the week last week as they captured the Cubs Classic championship.
During an 11-0 win over Red Bluff, she pitched a perfect game while striking out six. She also hit a home run and a double with three runs batted in.
It was one of three home runs that Seely hit over two busy days that saw her also pitch 25 innings and pick up five wins. In those games, she also struck out 39 and allowed just one earned run.
Entering this week for the season, Seely stood at 7-0 with a 0.20 ERA and had increased her career win to 34. She continues to show why she is one of the top pitchers in the CIF Northern Section.
Paul Muyskens is the Stockton office assistant editor for Cal-Hi Sports. Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Paul Muyskens is the Stockton office assistant editor and contributed to this post. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
