By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
A total of 20 Northern Section records were tied or broken in baseball and softball combined during the 2008 season, including some impressive performances by Liberty Christian’s Brooke Downs.
Downs, a four-year starter for Liberty Christian in Redding, set seven of the 11 softball records established during the year. Her .720 batting average (34-for-50) is the highest in section history, breaking the mark of .711 set last year by Foothill’s Samantha Camuso. Downs also had a 1.44 slugging percentage, which also broke the mark of 1.34 established by Camuso in 2007.
Downs set career records in both of those categories as well. She batted .649 for her career (149-for-230) and had a career slugging percentage of 1.178, consisting of 10 home runs, 35 triples, 39 doubles and 48 singles.
Downs’ 11 triples this year sets a record as does her 35 career triples. She also tied Camuso for the record in career doubles with 39.
Camuso also had her season mark of 13 home runs tied by Quincy’s Brittany Potter.
Jessica Moore of Sutter also set a pair of season records. The Husky junior broke the season strikeout record, previously held by Eileen Canney of Paradise, with 384 K’s this year. Canney’s previous mark was 372. Moore also set a record for shutouts in a season with 18. The old mark was 13 by Ashley Boek of Shasta.
Moore also stands to break several more section marks next year with the career strikeout record (1,015 by Boek), career wins mark (69 by Boek) and the career shutouts record (35 by Boek) well within her reach. Moore has 775 career strikeouts, 51 wins and 32 shutouts in her three years on the Sutter varsity.
The only other softball record belongs to Alex Ortiz of East Nicolaus. A transfer from Sheldon, Ortiz dominated Sacramento Valley League pitching this year with an astounding 61 RBI. She easily broke the old record of 52 RBI. Ortiz fell one double short of the section mark in that category, finishing the year with 18.
In baseball, the exploits of the Etna Lions garnered five of the nine new section marks. The Lions set a section record for base hits in a season with 338 and also set a record for doubles with 75.
Greg Monday, a transfer from Hesperia Christian, zoomed past the section mark for doubles, belting 21 on the season. The previous mark was 17, held by several including last year by Maxwell’s Brandon Ottenwalter.
Monday’s Etna teammates, Logan Dysert and Cliff Johnson also worked their way into the record book. Dysert set a record for base hits in the season with 57 while Johnson broke the record for at-bats in a season with 114.
Johnson broke the record set by Pleasant Valley’s Evan Busby, who had 113 at-bats last year. Busby still has a place in the record book, however, as he set a career record for at-bats with 341.
Northern Section MVP Matt Gualco of Delta established a pair of records. The four-year varsity player completed his career with 12 triples and he tied the season record of six, which is held by four others. Mitch Sanders of Sutter also tied the single-season triples record in 2008.
Mitchell Barsotti of Maxwell established the final baseball record as he walked a 67 times in his career. Barsotti was in a battle all season long with Hamilton’s Craig Lohse to see who would hold the record. Lohse finished his career with 65. The old record was 62, set last year by Shasta’s Aaron Westlake.
