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.

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