Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal selections are Jordyn VanHook of El Camino Real (left) and Isiah Fajardo (shown on far right with brother Andrew) from Highland of Bakersfield. VanHook’s team won L.A. City Section Open Division title. Isiah & Andrew’s team won Central Section D3 title. Photos: @CIFLACS / Twitter.com & Twitter.com.
We have two weeks to go for this feature for this school year and we’ll be looking to feature those baseball and softball players who have led their teams to section titles. It was more challenging than expected in the north since rainouts forced some section finals into this week, but we found two from the CIF Central Section we could do as NorCal honorees. This week’s fabulous foursome represents Woodland Hills, Templeton, Temecula and Bakersfield.
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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
Softball Player of the Week
Jordyn VanHook (El Camino Real, Woodland Hills) Sr.
Maybe it was the scoreboard at Cal-State Dominguez Hills, site of last Saturday’s CIF L.A. City Section Open Division championship, painted in the same colors that Jordyn will be wearing next season at Arizona State, but she concluded a standout four-year career by smashing three home runs as the Conquistadors won their 16th section crown with a 9-0 win over Granada Hills Charter.
VanHook ended the day going 4-for-4 with the three homers and seven RBI. She started launching home runs over the fence as a freshman and ended her four seasons at El Camino Real with 30 home runs.
We haven’t updated the state career home run leader list in a couple of seasons, but with VanHook and a couple of other players this year we will be doing that soon. For sure, her 30 career homers will definitely be among the all-time state leaders.
Cameron Maybee delivers for Great Oak during a game earlier this season. Photo: SoCal Prep Insiders / Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Cameron Maybee (Great Oak, Temecula) Sr.
We went with senior teammate and Oregon-bound shortstop Zach Arnold early in the season for this honor, but after what Cameron did in Great Oak’s 7-0 win over La Canada last Saturday at Dodger Stadium in the CIF Southern Section Division III championship there was no “maybe” that we weren’t going to pick him anyway.
Maybee nearly tossed a perfect game from the MLB mound, finishing with a one-hitter and eight strikeouts. He also was one of the Wolfpack’s top hitters and went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
Earlier in the playoffs, Maybee left no doubt in a two-hitter against Northview of Covina.
For the season, the Cal-Poly Pomona-bound Maybee finished 9-3 with a 1.07 ERA. He also had 92 strikeouts in 78 2/3 innings. At the plate, Cameron contributed without question with a .297 average plus 21 RBI.
Great Oak, which scored all of its runs in the fourth inning, won its first CIFSS baseball title under head coach Eric Morton, who started the program in the 2004-05 school year when Great Oak opened.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Isiah Fajardo (Highland, Bakersfield) Jr.
It’s a good thing we have always counted the CIF Central Section as Northern California because without it we wouldn’t have been able to honor any NorCal players who shined last week in leading teams to a section title. Several of the other sections in the north had games pushed back into this week and even the CIF Central Section D1 title game in baseball wasn’t finished.
Fajardo is one of several standout players at Highland, but we’re going for him after the team’s 3-0 victory over Atascadero in the CIF Central Section D3 championship because he’s the one who pitched a two-hitter over six innings. Fajardo also put up some nasty pitching totals for the season. He only went 41 innings, but in those innings only gave up one run (0.17 ERA) and he struck out 44 batters.
Fajardo wasn’t just a pitcher for the 29-2 Scots, either. He was among the batting leaders with 46 hits, a .484 batting average and he legged out 18 doubles.
This is the second section title in three years for Highland. Fajardo will be back next year with projected four-year starters Joey Vidal and Nick Salas for another section title run. With Vidal and Silas on the roster as freshman in 2017, the Scots not only won a section title but finished 27-3.
Daugherty went past 1,000 career strikeouts earlier this season. Photo: kprl.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Ashley Daugherty (Templeton) Sr.
We head over toward San Luis Obispo for our weekly NorCal girls’ winner where we find one of the new schools from the county in the CIF Central Section has captured one of the section softball titles.
Templeton, which has been led by Daugherty for several years, faced a Dinuba team in the Division V final that turned heads earlier this season by notching a victory against defending D1 section champ Clovis. Dinuba scored twice, but only got two hits against Daugherty as the Eagles came through for a 3-2 triumph. Daugherty also contributed at the plate with an RBI single.
In Templeton’s first playoff game, which was an easy win against Tulare, Daugherty was dominant in all phases. At the plate, she went 3-for-3 with one homer and four RBI. In the circle, she tossed a no-hitter and struck out 20 batters.
For the season, Ashley ended with a .379 batting average with five homers and 18 RBI. Her most impressive accomplishment, however, may be her career strikeout total of 1,076. According to section historian Bob Barnett, that is the third-most in section history.
Mark Tennis is the editor and publisher of Cal-Hi Sports. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
