Two of this week’s NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week are Izzy Starr of Mountain House and Will Chambers of Valencia West Ranch. Photos: itglions.com & WestRanchBaseball.com.
It’s our first chance this season to write about some of the most prolific, interesting and best baseball/softball players in the state through this weekly feature. One of them really is a Starr who hails from the fairly new school of Mountain House. The other three are from Valencia, San Jose and Atascadero.
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Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate someone by 12 noon on most Mondays, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Player of the Week
Mason Mooney
(Pioneer, San Jose) Sr.
For our first Northern California baseball award winner, we go to the southern part of San Jose to honor a player that has been doing it both as a pitcher and a batter for the 5-2 Mustangs. In fact, at the plate and in the three games he’s taken the mound, Mooney has had the opposition seeing stars.
Last week, in a 4-0 win over Capuchino of San Bruno, the senior right-hander tossed a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts and no walks in a 4-0 victory. At the plate, Mooney was money after going 3-for-3 with two runs scored.
It was the second time Mooney has pitched a shutout with 11 strikeouts in this young season after he hurled a two-hitter in a 2-0 victory over Carlmont of Belmont to open the season. He was 2-for-2 as a batter in that game.
So far this season, Mooney has shined to the tune of a 3-0 pitching record with a 0.33 ERA and 26 strikeouts with only one base on balls in 21 innings pitched. At the plate, he started the week hitting .429.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Izzy Starr
(Mountain House) Jr.
The way Mustangs’ backstop Izzy Starr has been stroking the ball at the plate in the first three games for the 3-0 Mustangs has made opponents so dizzy they’re seeing stars.
So far this season, Starr has been to the plate 12 times and has 10 hits with a walk for a .909 batting average.
Since this is our first edition of the Players of the Week for softball and baseball we included Starr’s performance on Monday when despite being retired for the one and only time this season, Izzy went crazy after going 4-for-5 with two home runs, including a grand slam, a double, eight RBIs and four runs scored in a football-like 26-23 victory over Lathrop.
Besides the .909 batting average on the 10 hits, including the grand slam, Starr’s other numbers are in another galaxy. She has five home runs, two doubles, 17 RBIs, nine runs scored, a .919 on-base percentage and an astronomical 2.454 slugging percentage.
Last year as a sophomore for a new school with just a handful of graduating classes, Izzy hit .652 with 10 homers and 44 RBI.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Will Chambers
(West Ranch, Valencia) Jr.
Will the thrill has been thrilling the fans and drilling the baseball so far for the 6-1 Wildcats, who likely will be cracking the Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20 this week.
The one baseball Will drilled that delighted the Wildcats’ faithful the most was the big two-run home run he blasted in a 3-1 victory over No. 13 ranked Stockdale of Bakersfield in a 3-1 victory last Saturday.
Two days before he took out Stockdale, Chambers was 3-for-4 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run scored in a 6-1 victory over Ventura. In a season-opening 10-5 victory against St. Francis of La Canada, he uncorked a grand slam and had five RBIs with a run scored.
So far this season, heading into this week, Chambers was batting .524 with three home runs, four doubles, 13 RBIs, six runs scored, and he had a 1.142 slugging percentage.
Chambers has signed a letter of intent with UC Santa Barbara.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Bailey Doherty
(Atascadero) Soph.
For our first SoCal girls honoree, we go to the Central Coast area of the CIF Southern Section to honor a pitcher who has been lights out so far this season.
She’s only gone all the way in three games for the 5-0 Greyhounds, but opponents would rather not see Bailey daily, since a dose of Doherty has left batters literally dazed.
In two games last week, she had a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a 2-0 shutout of Frontier of Bakersfield. Prior to that, Doherty tossed a 4-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a 1-0 squeaker against Bakersfield Liberty.
So far this season, after those two weekend games, Doherty was 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA, 46 strikeouts in 21.2 innings pitched with just one base on balls, and she’s only given up nine hits.
The 5-foot-11 sophomore hits as well and had a 545 batting average that includes two doubles and three runs driven in.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
