This week's girls' honoree has more than one thing in common with another softball standout from Northern California. She also has something in common with this week's boys' winner as both play for schools with Titans mascots.  

By Harold Abend, Special to CalHiSports.com

If you were a contestant on a California high school TV game show resembling Jeopardy, and the question/statement was, "she's a pitcher, her team won a section title, and this fall she'll be enrolling at the University of Oregon where she's received a scholarship to study and play softball,” you'd have two chances at a correct answer.

One girl has gotten a lot of ink the last couple of years while the other has labored in a bit of obscurity in the talent-laden softball world of Southern California.

One girl is future Duck Jessica Moore of the Northern Section D4 champion 34-0 Sutter Huskies.

The other girl is this week's ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com Girls State Athlete of the Week, Oregon-bound Samantha "Sam” Pappas of Tesoro in Rancho Santa Margarita.

"Sam,” as she likes to be called, was the team's linchpin as the pitcher and a power hitter in a 27-4 season that saw the Titans win the CIF Southern Section Division III championship, culminating with a 4-0 victory on June 6 over Glendora.  

In the title game victory, Pappas pitched a complete-game four hitter with eight strikeouts.

For the six games of the section playoffs, Sam shut out all six opponents. Besides Glendora, in order it was Sunny Hills of Fullerton, Bloomington, Warren of Downey, Chino and Los Altos of Hacienda Heights in the semis.

The Titans and Pappas basically had three seasons this year.

They were rolling at 19-0 and Orange County's No. 1 ranked team when they stumbled and lost four of their next five games. In that five-game stretch, Tesoro was outscored 39-13, including a 21-7 loss to a Dana Hills team they defeated 1-0 right before the slide started. Pappas was shelled in a couple of those losses and had five unearned runs against her in a 8-1 loss to San Clemente, but she regained her dominant form heading into the post-season.

The final game of the season was a 5-4 victory over South Coast League runner-up Mission Viejo but after that it was 45 scoreless innings for Pappas and Tesoro, who entered the playoffs as a wild card after finishing third in league behind Aliso Niguel and Mission Viejo.

For the season, Pappas was 26-4 with a 0.92 ERA and 230 strikeouts in 198.1 innings pitched and 772 batters faced.

Sam also performs well in the batters box just as she does from the circle.

With bat in hand, Pappas had a team-leading 42 hits to top the squad with a .438 average, five home runs, five triples, three doubles, 22 RBI and 33 runs scored.

"Sammy is a tremendous athlete, with great spirit and drive and unbelievable internal strength. She's been an absolute joy. Thank you so much for this opportunity and honor for her. She's earned it,” said Titans Coach Warren Nagano, who teaches four periods at a nearby middle school then comes over to Tesoro where he spends the remainder of the day teaching physical education and economics.

"Literally, she kept us in games with her focus,” continued Nagano, in his third year coaching softball at Tesoro and second as head coach. "We always had the confidence that somehow she'll keep us in the game.”

"When things weren't going well Sammy would stop things and tell the girls to re-focus. Besides everything she did, she had a role as a coach on the field as well,” remarked Nagano.

"There were times when she would symbolically and literally carry us on her back. A perfect example was against Edison (Huntington Beach) when she carried us to the very end with her pitching and then helped us score the lone run,” Nagano told CalHiSports.com.

In that 1-0 victory in March, Pappas hurled a three-hitter and singled home the winning run in the sixth inning.

"She is absolutely a leader but it's evolved,” said Nagano emphatically and with pride in his voice. "She was a leader last year too but she shared leadership with a senior. This year she's matured and stepped up in a way never seen at Tesoro.”

Like during the spell in which the Titans went in the tank and lost four of five games.

"It was a big challenge to re-focus after those four losses, but as a team the girls rose to it, gathered themselves, pulled together, and came up big, and Sam was a big part of it,” said Nagano matter-of-factly about the four-year varsity pitcher.

It should come as no surprise that the team was a subject Pappas wanted to talk about in length.

"All of us are really close and my best friends. We do everything together on and off the field,” Pappas told CalHiSports.com in an early morning pre-school interview with Tesoro still is session and graduation not until June 18.

"The way we bonded was to have a team sports day where we'd go around town biking, hiking, playing tennis, basketball and golf, and just hanging out,” said Pappas.

"My best, best, closest friends are Kasey Lange, Rachel Watson, Chandler Wagner and Cassandra Roulund.”

Lange was the biggest power-hitter in the lineup, batting .350 and leading the team in home runs and RBI with six and 38, respectively. According to Sam, the junior is looking at Harvard, Northwestern and Stanford as possible future schools.

Watson, another junior, was third on the team with four homers.

Wagner, also a junior, has accepted a scholarship to UC Davis.

Roulund hit .324 and led the team with seven doubles. "She's only a sophomore but I think she can play in college,” said her good friend Sam.

"After the losing streak we started a ritual thing of going to Ballpark Pizza and came back as a team,” remarked Pappas. "We lost focus for a couple of games and I was a little nervous about the playoffs, but we got the focus back and once we made the CIF I knew we could pull through.”

Sam used to play soccer and basketball until she was 10-11-years old but gave up basketball. Then, when she began high school, she quit soccer as well to focus on softball.

She played club ball for the So Cal Athletics and also likes to work with younger girls around the community and sisters of friends helping them learn the finer points of softball.

With respect to her choice of Oregon, Sam made an early commitment.

"My sophomore year a couple of schools were interested and I scheduled a couple of visits. On my first visit to Oregon I liked it so much and the coaches were so great I loved it and committed on the spot,” said Pappas, who carries a 3.2 GPA and plans on studying nursing and making that her career.

When the subject turned to family, Sam perked up even more, as did her dog Humphrey, a lhasa apso-poodle mix who barked his approval in the background.

"I love my dad so much. He comes to all my games and supports me. He's a great guy,” said Sam about her father John Pappas, a software engineer who played basketball in high school. "He still plays a little basketball now.”

Her mother, Gina, played tennis and softball growing up in Southern California. She is currently a realtor.

Sam's older brother, Austin, age 19, played volleyball at Tesoro and is currently playing volleyball and studying at Rutgers.

With respect to advice for young girls looking to play softball in college, Sam had advice that in some respects she had to heed herself in the past.

"Try your best and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. In the classroom, work hard at all your subjects and don't slack off like I did a little bit in the past,” she said with a chuckle. "I realized that without grades there's no softball, no college and no nursing.”

"It's really a good feeling but a little scary,” said Sam about being named the girls state athlete of the week.

"This is the first time I've really gotten any recognition,” she continued. "I never expected to be noticed and honored this way since I've sort of been flying under the radar. Thank you very much for honoring me.”

The real thanks go to Samantha "Sam” Pappas. She got her focus back on the field and in the classroom.

Comments or corrections? Email mark@studentsports.com. Special thanks to writer Harold Abend for completing all of the girls state athlete of the week features this week. To reach Harold, email marketingharold@yahoo.com. Look for more state girls athletes of the week after the first first full weekend of the 2009 football season.