FINAL 2022 NORCAL BASEBALL RANKINGS

For the Hollister softball team and Sophia Mariottini, expectations for the 2023 season were modest at best. There were only a handful of returning seniors from an 18-win team in 2022, and one of those seniors — Mariottini — wasn’t particularly bursting with confidence to open the season.

“I came into the season really weak,” Mariottini said. “Mentally not strong, physically not strong. I hadn’t been pitching much. I wasn’t having great travel seasons.”

But as the team slowly began coming together and bonding during the early weeks of practice, Mariottini decided she owed it to her teammates to be the best pitcher she could be. As it turns out, that version of Mariottini is pretty darn good.

Which made Hollister better than good. It made them champions.

“Coming into this, I looked around at my teammates, and they’re my sisters. I had to work for them,” Mariottini said. “So I really worked hard. I knew they were going to do everything to back me up. We had mutual trust in each other, and I knew this was my last season and I was the senior pitcher this year.

“I knew I had to come through for everyone. So I definitely tried to work really hard for my teammates.”

Mariottini won’t ever be mistaken for a power arm that racks up big strikeout totals, but she was the winning pitcher in all 30 wins for the Haybalers this season. And her playoff dominance — while being matched against some of NorCal’s best teams — was more than noteworthy.

She allowed just three earned runs over six playoff games and tossed shutouts in three of her last four starts. That included 16 innings of shutout softball against the team that spent the most weeks of 2023 atop of our NorCal Top 20 Rankings, St. Francis-Mountain View.

The senior tossed seven scoreless innings in a 4-0 Central Coast Section Open Division championship victory, and then backed it up with nine scoreless innings in the CIF Div. I NorCal final. Mariottini finished the season with a 30-2 record, a 1.59 ERA and just 28 walks in 171.1 innings pitched.

St. Francis junior Shannon Keighran paid Mariottini the ultimate compliment after the Lancers’ 4-0 CCS finals loss to the Haybalers.

“We knew what she was throwing, we just couldn’t get our barrel on top of it,” Keighran told the San Jose Mercury News. Opponents hit just .188 off of Mariottini for the season.

Mariottini was a regular offensive contributor as well. Which was a key factor in her earning SportStars NorCal Player of the Year honors over some other candidates from championship teams.

She hit .414 with 29 hits in 70 at bats. She had eight doubles, two triples and two home runs. Mariottini hit safely in all but one playoff game and also drove in two of the team’s three runs in a NorCal semifinal win over Whitney-Rocklin. Mariottini is now set to start a new career at NCAA Division II Molloy University in Long Island, New York.

“I don’t really know what to expect, but I’m really excited to play for them,” the pitcher said. “It’s just something new for me and I can’t wait to start that journey.”

We have a feeling she’ll be doing so with a lot more confidence. ✪

— Story by Chace Bryson | Photos by Larry Kauk

Franklin baseball coach Bryan Kilby estimated he heard it at least 50 times.

Nolan Stevens made a habit of telling his coach the same thing.

“Whether it was in the weight room in January, or while getting water off the field in February and March, he was constantly telling me, ‘Coach, we’re winning Section this year,’” Kilby said. “You could tell he meant what he said.”

Then he went out and proved it with a dominant season as one of the state’s most complete players.

The Mississippi State commit was a difference-maker at the plate, on the mound and in multiple defensive positions for a Wildcats team that produced a schoolrecord 30 wins — and yes, brought home a section title. Stevens’ wide-reaching effect on so many aspects of the Wildcats’ success put him over the top when considering him among other talented players for SportStars’ top NorCal baseball honor.

“His ability to impact games in so many different ways: On the mound, at the plate, in the field… He just had a relentless, competitive attitude that he brings to the game every day,” Kilby said. “I just love that about him.”

The Wildcats coach has known Stevens for close to eight years. Kilby coached Nolan’s twin brothers Grant and Carson from 2016-19, and Nolan was always hanging around the field.

“What caught my attention was that he’s just a gamer,” the coach said. “He was always wanting to jump into workouts with the varsity players and willing to take any challenge head-on.”

This season, the challenge he zeroed in on was clear. He wanted that section title.

After a pair of losses at the Northern California Boras Classic in early April, the Wildcats reeled off 16 straight wins to capture the program’s first Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I title and reach the CIF NorCal Div. I semifinals.

“I think just over the course of the season, we learned to trust each other more,” Stevens said. “You can’t win every game with just one player. We had a lot of guys. As Kilby woud say, we had ‘a lot of dudes.’”

Kilby and the coaching staff had purposely kept their star from pitching much during the first month of the season, protecting his arm a bit and keeping him fresh for the second half. After the Boras tournament, they turned him loose.

Stevens went 5-0 on the mound with a 1.29 ERA. Those numbers are nice, but don’t nearly reflect the left-hander’s dominance. He allowed two hits or less in seven of his nine appearances, and struck out 62 batters across just 39 innings of work. He allowed just two extra-base hits all season.

At the plate, Stevens was just as good. He batted .360 with team-bests in hits (40), runs (35) and home runs (4). He had 23 RBI and finished his season on 13-game hitting streak, including a home run against eventual NorCal-champion De La Salle-Concord in his final high school game.

Over seven postseason games, Stevens was 13-for-24 (.541 average) with 11 runs scored, two homers, and six RBI. He was 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI in the team’s section championship win over Whitney-Rocklin.

“Winning that title meant a lot to me,” Stevens said. “I know a lot of former Franklin players were there too and how much it meant to them.”

Stevens now follows in the footsteps of his brothers into the collegiate ranks. Grant played for University of Pacific and Carson played at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Nolan will head for a slightly bigger stage by venturing into the SEC — the most competitive Division I conference in the country.

Mississippi State signed him with the idea of making him a two-way player.

It’s a challenge he’ll take head on. It’s what he does. ✪ — Story by Chace Bryson | Photos by David Gershon