Two of our honorees this week are Danny Aguilar (left) from Livingston, who is holding ball with number of batters he struck out in game vs Johansen of Modesto with a ghost seemingly right behind him, and Alyssa Torres from Valley View of Moreno Valley, who is on a record-setting home run tear. Photos: lhsPACKbaseball / X.com & Valley View HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
State record implications are there for two of the four we’re honoring this week, but considering the competition involved it was one of the other honorees who perhaps made the biggest impact. Our four winners are from Moreno Valley and Lakewood in Southern California and then it’s Livingston and Loomis for Northern California.
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Notes: For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Alyssa Torres (Valley View, Moreno Valley) Jr.
We begin our travels this week in the Riverside County community of Moreno Valley, which is east of the 215 freeway and north of the 10 freeway as it begins its eastward journey across the United States. It’s at Valley View High where we find Torres, who we thought had been picked for this honor before when she was nominated by head coach John Perez.
That’s actually not true. It’s just that we’ve been writing up Alyssa’s home run feats for more than two years and tracking her totals for the Cal-Hi Sports state record files. Torres just had arguably her best week of her career and has put a lot of distance between herself and anyone else reporting home runs to MaxPreps.
Alyssa’s week began by hitting two homers, going 2-for-4 and getting two RBI in a 10-9 loss to Orange Vista of Perris. Torres then hit two more homers and went 2-for-3 with five RBI to lead the Eagles past Paloma Valley of Menifee, 11-0, and then in a non-league matchup with Colony of Ontario she blasted two more homers to make it six for the week and she had five RBI in a 16-0 victory.
Torres, who has committed to Arizona State and still has a senior season left to play, already is close to last year’s total of 20 homers with 18. She only needs three more for the Riverside County record of 21 set in 2012 by Sierra Romero of Vista Murrieta (Murrieta). The state record of 28 was set in 2015 by Tannon Snow of Chino Hills.
“She’s one of the most feared hitters in Riverside County,” said Perez, one of the winningest coaches in state history due to his years mostly at Santiago of Corona but now piling up wins (team was 16-3 starting this week). “I called her The Franchise as a freshman. I’ve been very blessed to have this young lady at Valley View.”
Aidan Sullivan from Mayfair of Lakewood went 7-for-7 with 10 RBI last week, but the bigger news was him selected to the CIF SOuthern Section Student-Athlete Advistory Council. Photo: monsoonathletics / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Aidan Sullivan (Mayfair, Lakewood) Jr.
Usually if a baseball player were to have a 7-for-7 week with nine runs scored and 10 RBI it would be hard for that accomplishment to be surpassed by something else, but for Sullivan that would be the case. In addition to games he had for the Monsoons on the diamond in three easy wins vs Lynwood, he learned he was selected to be on the CIF Southern Section Student-Athlete Advisory Council. There are only 18 members selected from across the entire massive 600-plus school section to be on that council and Aidan won’t have to go far from Lakewood to Cerritos for meetings since the CIFSS main office is in Cerritos.
Sullivan is a prototype student-athlete and plays baseball at a school that has had some great players, including former L.A. Dodger World Series champion Justin Turner. He’s helped the Monsoons to a 17-6 record overall and to 11-1 in the Mid Cities League. They are off this week so none of those records or any of Aidan’s stats are going to change.
Here’s the three games that Sullivan had in Mayfair’s 17-1, 21-1 and 21-1 triumphs against Lynwood: 2-for-2 with a double, three runs scored and two RBI; 3-for-3 with a homer, three runs scored and four RBI; and 2-for-2 with a triple, three runs scored and four RBI.
For the season, Aidan will get going after spring break with a .439 batting average, 29 runs scored, two homers, five triples and 24 RBI. He batted .340 last season with 32 hits, 38 runs scored, eight doubles, three homers and 27 RBI.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Danny Aguilar (Livingston) Sr.
For the NorCal baseball stop this week, we head to a town in between Turlock and Merced on Highway 99 known as being the headquarters of the Foster Farms poultry company. It’s there where we find Aguilar, a pitcher who did something last week that is going to put his name into the Cal-Hi Sports state records.
In a 3-1 victory against Johansen of Modesto, Danny ended with 20 strikeouts. It wasn’t a no-hitter, but it was a two-hitter and he also went 2-for-3 with a run scored on offense. For most strikeouts in a seven-inning game in the state records, whether it’s a no-hitter or perfect game doesn’t matter. Anyone who has reached 20 Ks in a game gets automatically listed. There wasn’t anyone who did that last season. There was one with 21 Ks in a game in 2022, but the last reported with 20 was J.J. Smith of Denair in 2019. Denair is just 12 miles north of Livingston.
It hasn’t been that great of a season so far for the Lions, who are only 10-12 overall entering a matchup Tuesday at Pacheco of Los Banos. Aguilar’s strikeouts, however, have been a highlight. For the season, he has gone 5-2 with a 1.71 ERA and has 98 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings.
Abby Davidson of Del Oro watches the flight of the second home run she hit last week in team’s big win vs Whitney of Rocklin. Photo: Jordan Georgeson / Gold Country Media.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Abby Davidson (Del Oro, Loomis) Sr.
Our final stop this week in the South Placer County community of Loomis and it’s to honor a girl (and a team) that has simply been rocketing balls around the yard and over the fences in games this season.
Davidson has been the top run producer in the lineup. Last week began with a matchup in the Sierra Foothill League against a Whitney of Rocklin squad that had just knocked off Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills two days earlier that prevented Oak Ridge from moving up to No. 1 in the state. Davidson mashed not one but two homers and ended 3-for-5 with four RBI. The Golden Eagles then played another state top 25 team in their next game two days later and in that team they defeated Rocklin, 5-1. Davidson only had one hit but it was a home run.
Those two wins helped Del Oro (19-1) climb to No. 4 in this week’s State TOP 25 rankings that we have compiled for more than 40 years. The team’s only loss is to Oak Ridge. Davidson has been clubbing bombs all season and has 11 homers, 34 RBI and a .484 batting average. The team and Davidson will be on a break this week, but still has another game left with Oak Ridge.
The senior outfielder has been an All-Sierra Foothill League pick the last two seasons, but has not generated the type of power numbers that has been so instrumental in Del Oro’s success so far until this season. Last season, Abby batted .338 with five homers and nine RBI. She also has a reported 3.8 GPA.
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.
