Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week are D’Artagnan Van Dusen from Lincoln of San Diego (left) and Kayla Bowen of Fresno Edison. Photos: YouTube.com & Twitter.com.
This week’s quartet of honorees spans the state from San Diego to the CIF Northern Section with two of them getting the nod for pitching no-hitters while two others stood out for smashing a barrage of home runs. They hail from Lincoln High, Las Plumas of Oroville, San Dimas and Edison of Fresno.
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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 Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
D’Artagnan Van Dusen
(Lincoln, San Diego) Sr.
After missing his junior season on the diamond due an injury he suffered during the 2016 football season, Van Dusen is making up for lost time and putting out some stats that are making Hornet fans doozy.
A three-game barrage against Crawford of San Diego concluded late last week with D’Artagnan blasting three homers with six RBI and going 3-for-4 in a 21-5 win. Earlier in the week, Van Dusen dusted off his bat and went 3-for-4 with two homers and four RBI in a 21-2 romp past the Colts and then 2-for-3 with four runs scored and five RBI in a 24-1 demolition of the same team.
Heading into this week, for the season, Van Dusen was batting .500 with nine homers and 41 RBI.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Samantha Garcia
(San Dimas) Sr.
We normally don’t like to feature players from the same school in back-to-back weeks, but regardless this proved to be a good week to break out a writeup of Garcia as the SoCal Softball POW one week after Zach Jacobs of the San Dimas baseball team was chosen as the SoCal Baseball POW.
Garcia has been on our player of the week radar for most of the season and gets the nod after what she did in a 5-0 win over Baldwin Park. She ended with a no-hitter and 15 strikeouts as a pitcher while at the plate she went 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI.
The Cal-State Northridge signer had four no-hitters earlier this season and after the Baldwin Park game was 10-4 with a 1.29 ERA plus 135 strikeouts. She didn’t pitch in another game last week and in that one she went 3-for-4 with a double, homer and four RBI in a 13-3 win over Covina.
As a batter so far this season, Garcia has connected for eight homers and 22 RBI plus a .456 batting average.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Javier Martinez
(Las Plumas, Oroville) Sr.
For this week’s NorCal baseball honoree, we go up to Butte County near the massive Oroville Dam where this player has been busting out as one of the top two-way standouts in the CIF Northern Section.
In a 8-0 win last week against Corning, Martinez plugged up the Cardinals with his pitching and finished with an 11-strikeout no-hitter. In the same game, he also went 1-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
It also was the second no-hitter of the season for Javier, who earlier got one in five innings against Lindhurst of Olivehurst. He’s also had a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a victorious outing against Lassen of Susanville.
Although Corning came back to get a 2-0 win later in the week, Martinez started this week with a .323 batting average with four homers and 22 RBI. On the mound, he was 7-1 with a 1.37 ERA and had 81 strikeouts in 51 innings.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Kayla Bowen (Edison, Fresno) Sr.
This shortstop/pitcher is putting a bow on a stellar career playing softball for the Tigers.
In a game last week against San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno, Kayla cracked a pair of homers as part of a 4-for-4 day and had six RBI. She also pitched the five-inning shutout.
During a recent stretch of games from April 6 to April 13 earlier this season, Bowen went 10-for-16 with five homers and 15 RBI.
She’s been swinging a hot bat for the last three years on Edison’s varsity, including last season when she had 59 hits, had a .562 batting average and had nine homers and 60 RBI.
Bowen, who is a cousin for former NBA defensive wizard Bruce Bowen (known mostly for his years with the San Antonio Spurs), will play next at New Mexico State.
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
