Jack Wiese from Beckman of Irvine stands with pitching coach Dave Goldstein after no-hitter last week. Sacramento Sheldon’s Sarah Fukushima, meanwhile, has been ruining the ERA of pitchers. Photos: @BPatsBaseball/Twitter.com & John Hull/Elk Grove Citizen.
Glendale’s Sammy Fabian extends hitting streak to 60 games with two monster outings and gains this week’s top honor for SoCal softball. This week’s NorCal softball choice also is for a hitter (she’s from Sacramento) but our two baseball players of the week (one from Irvine and the other from Tulare) got it done on the mound.
Note: For purposes of this feature, we also 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
Jack Weise
(Beckman, Irvine) Sr.
Getting the start against University of Irvine, Weise pitched a no-hitter with six strikeouts to lead the Patriots to a 3-0 win in Pacific Coast League play.
It was Weise’s first career no-hitter and he walked just two to improve to 7-1 on the season. The win also kept the Patriots at the top of the Pacific Coast League. They started this week at 19-3 and are knocking on the door of the State Top 20 rankings.
Head coach Kevin Lavalle told the OC Register “what Jack gave us today is what he has been giving us all year” about his standout pitcher. Earlier in April, Weise had a strong start when Beckman notched a critical league win against Corona del Mar of Newport Beach.
Cal-HI Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Sammy Fabian
(Glendale) Jr.
After she received a feature-style writeup in the L.A. Times last week, there was no jinx applied to Fabian’s 58-game hitting streak. In fact, it may have had the opposite effect.
In two wins by Glendale last week against Muir of Pasadena, Fabian went a combined 5-for-8 and had eight RBI. She went 3-for-4 with a homer, triple and four RBI in a 19-0 win over the Mustangs, then went 2-for-4 with two doubles and four RBI in a 14-1 triumph.
Fabian’s streak, which began in her first game as a freshman in the 2014 season, is still 11 games short of the Cal-Hi Sports state record of 71 set last season by Zoe Casas from Aquinas of San Bernardino.
Although she is a UC Santa Barbara commit and talented travel ball player, Glendale’s relatively weak league schedule and lack of playoff games (there’s only been one so far in Fabian’s career) seems to cause some snickers from other parts of the state.
It should be noted, however, that when Glendale played Burbank and its ace pitcher Caitlyn Brooks three times from 2014 to 2015 that Fabian got two hits in two of those games and one hit in another. She also has gotten hits in games against Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta, which is one league opponent that does have a strong softball program.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Elijah Parks
(Tulare Western, Tulare) Jr.
For the second time this season, this junior pitched a no-hitter after he accomplished it last week during a 6-0 win over Mission Oak of Tulare.
Allowing just one walk, Parks also finished with 12 strikeouts. It was not only his second no-hitter of the season but his second no-hitter in a two-week span.
In that other no-hitter, Parks gave up two walks and struck out 14 in a 6-0 triumph vs. Delano.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Sarah Fukushima (Sheldon, Sacramento) Sr.
It seems like Fukushima’s slugging has been getting more impressive week after week after week and it’s been helping Sheldon rise up toward the top 10 in the state rankings.
Last week, Fukushima hit four home runs and is now tied for the school record for home runs in a season with the total of 13 home runs hit by Danielle Henderson back in 2011.
The Huskies opened last week with a 12-4 win over Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills when Fukushima hit a double, two home runs and drove in five runs. She also homered twice while driving in four runs during a 10-1 win over Davis.
For the season entering this week, Fukushima also was hitting .524 with 39 runs batted in.
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. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
