It didn’t happen in the first week of the NorCal/SoCal Baseball and Softball Players of the Week, but it did this week and that means to remind readers that for all Cal-Hi Player of the Week features for all sports, the CIF Central Section is considered in Northern California.
That having been said, Cal-Hi heads about 25 miles northeast of Fresno on Highway 99 where we find a junior who’s had the biggest bat on a Stallions’ team with a lot of big bats in its lineup.
In two games last week, Madera South’s Brian Monges was on fire at the plate and then continued his hot streak in a game this week.
Monges started last week going 2-for-4 with a triple, two RBI and a run scored in an 8-1 victory over the Liberty Hawks.
Since then, Monges has been about as close to perfect as you can be after going 8-for-8 in his last two games.
In a 21-0 thrashing of Caruthers, he was 4-for-4 with a double, stolen base, two RBI and four runs scored, and he reached base a fifth time when he got plunked.
Monges followed that up on Monday with another 4-for-4 performance in a 12-2 rout of Selma. In that game, he knocked in one, scored three times, and got on base a fifth time by getting hit by a pitch, once again.
So far this season, Mones is batting .833 with an .857 on base percentage.
Monges has only pitched one inning of relief, and that was in the Selma win when he retired the three batters he faced and fanned one.
Speaking of Madera South pitchers, Cal-Hi also gives a shout-out to Stallions’ ace Triston “Murf” Gray.
The Fresno State-committed junior right-handed pitcher and shortstop has been pretty hot himself at the plate and from the mound. Gray is hitting .600 with five RBI and five runs scored. He also has a 2-0 record with a 1.27 ERA and he’s struck out 22 batters in only 11 inning pitched.