Turlock High’s Shelby Frutoz is the Turlock Journal Player of the Year for the spring season of 2018 after the junior had one of the more dominant and memorable seasons.

A big reason Turlock was successful was their steady and consistent play from their entire starting lineup, including CCC Most Valuable Player Shelby Frutoz.

Frutoz (Long Beach State) handled the CCC and the season overall, after she pitched 125 and 2/3 innings and finished with 178 strikeouts while opponents batted .129 against her.

Frutoz also had an ERA of 1.67 and went 15-4, including pitching six shutouts and 17 complete games.

“Shelby works a lot off the field on her hitting and pitching,” said Turlock head coach Jill Ogden. “Shelby absolutely deserves the Journal Player of the Year Award.  She is a special player in this region. Shelby was a team captain this year and has exemplified everything we expect of a captain, great student, someone her teammates respect, and someone who holds herself accountable to the team.”

In 21 games played, Frutoz also batted .397 with 18 RBI and two home-runs.

Turlock also won the CCC in their final year competing in it with a 10-2 record. 

“She was able to come back and help the team win CCC,” said Ogden. “Shelby has tremendous game sense and seems to get better when facing a difficult situation; runners on base or after an error.  She is also a hitter that other teams would rather not face. She was walked 18 times, several intentional. She is only a junior, so we look for her to help this team become a force in the CCAL.”

Lehua Deleon earned Offensive Player of the Year honors for the Journal after the senior was atop nearly all categories on offense in league play and in the area.

The San Francisco State bound athlete also was part of the best start in Pride history after 10 games going 10-0.

Deleon of Pitman was consistently successful all around after she stole 23 of her stolen base attempts and led the squad in slugging percentage (.792), runs (41), batting average (.545) and doubles (10). She finished with 26 RBI and had a home-run.

“I say Hua is one of the best hitters for average to come through our program,” said Pitman head coach Joe Lewis. “She has deceptive power for her size and it shows with the amount of extra base hits every year. She is the type of athlete coaches love having and would do anything asked of her for the team. She finished with a 385 average in her four years combined at varsity.”

Deleon also earned the CCC Offensive Player of the Year honors and was a four-year varsity starter along with a four-time all-league selection.

Hilmar High junior Madison Aguiniga earned Pitcher of the Year honors for the Journal after helping her team reach the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-V Championship game. 

The Yellowjackets finished the year with an overall record of 20-9 and as the runners-up in the D-V playoff bracket.

“Madison did a great job for us this year,” said Hilmar head coach Paul Willis. “Early in the year she worked hard since she had not pitched a lot over the last year and a half because of an injury. We needed her to get stronger for league so she pitched many of our pre-season games and some were both games of a double header.”

Once Hilmar kicked off league play at 1-3, Aguiniga began to take over and dealt, essentially beating out the remainder of her opponents, except the Section Champs—Escalon.

“She gave us a chance to win each game,” said Willis. “That's when we went 7-1 to make the playoffs. She continued to pitch well in the playoff games and our offense came around as was evident with our 6-5-win vs Amador, 9-4 win over Hughson and 8-4 win over Linden.”

Aguiniga finished the year with a 17-8 overall record, 8-2 in the TVL and finished with 124 strikeouts.