Two of this week’s honorees are Jaron Nevarez from San Ramon Valley (Danville) & Dezianna Patmon from San Diego Patrick Henry. Photos: PrepBaseballReport.com & Sportsrecruits.com.
For week six of our Baseball and Softball Players of the Week feature we hit the slopes of Mt. Diablo in Danville and the shadow of Travis Air Force Base for our NorCal honorees, and then head to the Ventura County town of Santa Paula and San Diego for our SoCal award winners. One of these four also has a brother catching passes in the NFL.
We hope you enjoy this free story on Cal-Hi Sports.com. For our State Top 35 rankings packages for the rest of the baseball-softball seasons plus State Stat Stars of the Week, state record updates and special features, please check out our Gold Club membership today. If you’re not a member, CLICK HERE.
Note: For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com. We are picking the winners on Monday nights for the rest of the spring season.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Dezianna Patmon
(Patrick Henry, San Diego) Sr.
The Mission City of San Diego is where we land in search of our Southern California Softball Player of the Week. There we find, Patmon, a senior who is putting up some solid numbers so far this season just like she did two years ago as a sophomore before the pandemic wiped out her junior campaign.
She only had one game last week but for Dezianna it was a doozy. The North Carolina A&T-committed little sister of Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Desmon Patmon (who also is from Patrick Henry before he played at Washington State) went deep twice, singled, drove in six runs, and scored twice in a 15-4 victory over crosstown Del Norte.
Patmon was right on her seasonal average of .667 in one game already this week after going 2 for 3 with a double in a 5-3 win against San Diego High. She has not simply run it up against weak competition, either. In a 1-0 loss that the Patriots had this season to CIF San Diego Section No. 1 team Mater Dei Catholic, Patmon went 1-for-2.
Besides the .667 batting average this season, Dezianna has dazzled with four home runs, a triple, five doubles, 11 RBI and 12 runs scored.
Two years ago as a sophomore, Patmon hit. 429 with 23 RBI and 14 runs scored.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Marcus Chavez
(Santa Paula) Sr.
Ventura County is the destination for our Southern California Baseball Player of the Week and we land about 10 miles east of the city of Ventura on Highway 126 to a town and a school not far from the banks of the Santa Clara River.
It’s in Santa Paula where we find a small school standout and slugging third-baseman and occasional pitcher who can spray the ball with bat in hand.
We always appreciate teams making their stats available, and while we know Chavez and the rest of the Cardinals have been smacking the hardball around pretty good, someone who inputs the stats must have gotten the Grand Slams column on MaxPreps mistaken with games started, since we know Marcus can’t possibly have hit 10 grand slams this season or the Cardinals 98 as a team.
Enough poking a little fun. This is about what Marcus has actually accomplished. Chavez doesn’t hit for a ton of power but as the old expression goes he knows where to “him em were they ain’t,” and he knows how to find the gaps.
For Chavez it’s kind of his overall body of work we’re honoring since last week’s two games were just like another day at the office. In a 19-8 victory over Nordhoff of nearby Ojai, he was 3 for 5 with a double, three RBI and four runs scored. Two days later in a 15-1 shellacking of Oxnard Hueneme, the Santa Paula senior had another double, three RBI and three runs scored.
So far this season in 10 reported games for the 6-4 Cardinals, Chavez was batting .647 with 22 hits, seven of which are doubles, 14 RBI and 13 runs scored. Leaders in hits are not posted as a list, but the 22 hits in 10 games is the second highest ratio of hits per games in the state and the .647 batting average is the No. 4 reported mark in the CIF Southern Section.
We did mention that Marcus pitches and in three appearances he’s 1-1 with a 1.00 ERA.
Hazyl Gray should be one of the top players next spring in Northern California. Photo: ncsasports.org.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Hazyl Gray
(Vanden, Fairfield) Jr.
A school in the shadow of an Air Force Base is our destination for this week’s Northern California Softball Player of the Week. We land at Vanden, and it’s a school whose name graces the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book in a lot of places when it comes to softball.
Gray won’t be getting her name in the record book, nor will Vanden for this season’s accomplishments, but Hazyl has been a huge part of a season that’s now complete with the Vikings finishing 11-0 and at No. 26 in the most recent state rankings.
Last week, in two big wins, the junior left-handed hurler and slugger was lights out in the circle and at the plate.
In a 10-0 shutout of neighboring Vacaville Wood, Hazyl dazzled the Vikings’ faithful by firing a 2-hitter with 12 strikeouts and no walks. At the plate she was a one-girl wrecking crew. Gray was 3 for 3 with a home run, triple, base on balls, six RBI and two runs scored. Two days later in a 10-0 win over crosstown rival Rodriguez, she tossed a 3-hitter with four fanned and once again no walks. With bat in hand, Hazl had two hits in three at bats, a stolen base, two RBI and a run scored.
The signature performance for Gray this season came back in late March when she struck out 14, plus she had a triple that drove in two runs and she scored two runs in an 11-8 victory of perennial CIF Sac-Joaquin Section power Sheldon of Sacramento.
Gray ended her junior season 8-0 as a pitcher with a 1.38 ERA and 82 strikeouts with only six walks in 50.2 innings pitched. As a batter she finished with a .441 average, three home runs, 20 RBI and 11 runs scored, and she only struck out four times in 39 plate appearances.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Jaron Nevarez
(San Ramon Valley, Danville) Jr.
For our Northern California Baseball Player of the Week we head to the shadow of majestic Mt. Diablo. It’s there we find a junior left-handed pitcher that has been dominant on the mound, and most recently against a school all the way on the other side of the mountain in Concord with a storied history.
Last week, in a 7-0 shutout on the road at De La Salle, Jaron was definitely on. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound junior wasn’t overpowering, but he got the host Spartans to hit the ball to his teammates.
The result is that Nevarez ended up firing a 1-hitter with four strikeouts, three walks, and he did plunk a guy, but a complete game 1-hitter against a perennial statewide power is nothing to sneeze about.
Earlier this season, Nevarez had a complete game 4-hit shutout with seven strikeouts and five walks in a 13-0 victory over Foothill of Pleasanton, like De La Salle another annual powerhouse from the East Bay Athletic League.
Granada of Livermore touched him up a bit but so far this season entering a game on Wednesday, Jaron was 2-0 with a 1.37 ERA and 17 strikeouts with 10 walks in 17.1 innings pitched. He also had not given up an extra base hit.
The San Diego State-committed Nevarez also is an offensive contributor both when he’s pitching or playing outfield. In fact, his scouting information is more about him as an outfielder than as a pitcher. He didn’t have a hit in his shutout of De La Salle but he walked and scored a run. Earlier this week, in a 12-8 victory over Livermore, Jaron went deep for the first time this season.
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
