Two of this week’s honorees are Cade Townsend from Santa Margarita of Rancho Santa Margarita and Mya Flindt from Whitney of Rocklin. Photos: @SMCHSBaseball / Twitter.com & Jordan Georgeson / Gold Country Media.
There were no entries for the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book to track this week, which is one of the purposes of this feature, but we have some huge talent to honor, including two who are heading to the opposite side of the country for college in the fall. This week’s stops are in Rancho Santa Margarita and La Habra in Southern California, and in Northern California we visit Napa and Rocklin.
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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
Baseball Player of the Week
Cade Townsend (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Sr.
We begin this week in the southern part of Orange County and honor a pitcher who set a new school record for strikeouts in a game. This is one of the big-time programs in the state and Cade didn’t exactly set his record of 14 strikeouts against weak competition. On the contrary, his two-hitter and 14 Ks came in a 6-0 victory last week against two-time defending CIF Southern Section D1 champion JSerra.
Here’s more details about the outing. He only walked one and struck out the side in both the sixth and seventh innings. He also threw 67.3 percent of his pitches for strikes.
For the season, Cade (who has committed to Ole Miss) pushed his season record to 4-0 in eight starts with 56 Ks in 37 1/3 innings pitched.
In the school records, Townsend surpassed the previous record of 13 strikeouts first set in 1999 by Matt Wilkerson, tied in 2014 by future major leaguer Griffin Canning and tied again two years ago by Jack Svinth.
Bayle Hunnicutt takes a mighty swing during Sonora’s big win last week vs La Habra. Photo: James Escarcega / SGV Whittier Prep Sports Zone.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Softball Player of the Week
Bayle Hunnicutt (Sonora, La Habra) Jr.
We end up in the northernmost reaches of Orange County around midway between Imperial Highway and Whittier Boulevard in La Habra at Sonora for this stop, and after seeing the exploits of Hunnicutt on X/Twitter, we knew we had a solid candidate, and after all was said and done Bayle has made the grade and is being honored as the Southern California Softball Player of the Week.
In a lot of cases, multi-home run games and double digit strikeouts come in blowouts and routs, but not in the case of Hunnicutt. Last week, in a 2-0 shutout of crosstown Freeway League arch rival La Habra, Bayle was hot both in the circle and at the plate. As a pitcher, the lanky 6-foot Hunnicutt, who has a fastball that tops out at around 60-63 miles per hour, cut down a season-high 12 opposing batters by strikeout and only gave up two hits and one walk. With bat in hand, Bayle provided more than all the offense she needed with two solo home runs for both of the Raiders’ runs driven in and scored. She also walked in her other at bat.
So far this season for 10-8 Sonora and heading into a league match-up on Wednesday with visiting Buena Park, the Eastern Kentucky-committed Hunnicutt is 8-4 with a 2.35 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 89.1 innings pitched.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Softball Player of the Week
Mya Flindt (Whitney, Rocklin) Sr.
To find the Northern California Softball Player of the Week we head around 25 miles east of the state capitol and end up in Placer County just off Highway 65 in Rocklin, and it’s at Whitney High where we locate the award winner.
We didn’t get to see the South Carolina-commit in action at the Livermore Stampede since Whitney had to gather its players and coaches in the hotel lobby where the news that the tournament was cancelled and that the Wildcats were heading home and wouldn’t play in the mini Stampede that was hastily arranged was met by some long faces by the players.
Whitney may have had to head back to Rocklin two weekends ago disappointed at losing out on five games at the Stampede, but since then the Wildcats have won four straight games to climb to No. 23 in the most recent Cal-Hi Sports state rankings, and is ripping it right now.
After not playing for over a week, Whitney got in three games last week and won them all with Mya having a hand in all three wins. In the first game last week, an 11-4 Sierra Foothill League win over Del Oro of neighboring Loomis, Flindt blasted three home runs, walked, drove in seven runs and scored three times on each of the round-trippers. The following day in a 3-2 non-league win on the road in Woodland at perennially tough Pioneer, doubled and scored.
Continuing with last week, in the third game, Whitney was able to cover the backs of the girls basketball team that got roughed up by powerhouse Folsom this past season, when the Wildcats pounded the Bulldogs in a 10-0 home victory. In that game Mya was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs batted in.
Although it technically doesn’t count towards this award, the icing on the cake came on Monday when Mya launched two more home runs, drove in five and scored twice in a 9-1 road win.
Add it all up and since the disappointing trip to Livermore, the Wildcats’ catcher has gone 10-for-14 with five home runs, 15 RBI and six runs scored. If that’s not ripping it, what is?
So far this season and heading into a Tuesday afternoon league match-up in El Dorado Hills at Oak Ridge, she was hitting for a .550 batting average with seven home runs, five doubles, 21 RBI and eight runs scored. For her four-year varsity career, she also has now hit 21 home runs with a .402 batting average.
Noah Piersig from Vintage of Napa delivers a pitch during a game from earlier this season. Photo: Vintage HS Athletics / MaxPreps.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Baseball Player of the Week
Noah Piersig (Vintage, Napa) Sr.
The search for the Northern California Baseball Player of the Week takes us to the picturesque Napa Valley where everything is about wine, including the league the team plays in, and the name and mascot of the school our honoree attends, where Piersig is a member of the Vintage Crushers of the Vine Valley Athletic League.
Piersig has had a decent season as the ace of a staff of four starts, but last week was the icing on the cake and the reason Noah is our award winner. That’s when the 6-foot-3, 180-pound right-handed pitcher was a plunked batter away from a perfect game when he tossed a no-hitter with six strikeouts while still only facing 21 batters in a VVAL 5-0 victory over crosstown arch-rival Justin-Siena.
So far this season for the 10-7 Crushers and heading into a non-league match-up at home on Wednesday against San Marin of Novato, Piersig stood at 4-2 with 2.31 ERA and 33 strikeouts and only nine bases on balls in 39.1 innings pitched.
Of note, and for those potential colleges looking for a well-rounded student-athlete, Noah produces in the classroom as well where he reportedly carries a 4.3 grade point average. That’s crushing it!
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
