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Extra Inning Softball National Player of the Week (Mar. 11, 2018)

Megan Faraimo started the season off with a bang: an 18-strikeout perfect game.

With more and more high school teams kicking off play across the country, it’s time for Extra Inning Softball to begin announcing our National High School Player of the Week awards.

This week, from coast to coast, it was the pitchers who dominated and two of the highest profile players in their graduation classes were on fire.

If you’d like to nominate players for future consideration, email us at [email protected]. We’re looking for top performances in high school play each week that can be on a single game or cumulative week basis.

So, without further ado we present…

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Extra Inning Softball’s National High School Player of the Week

Megan Faraimo (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego, California)

Megan Faraimo, considered the top pitcher in the Class of 2018 and a UCLA signee, couldn’t have started her final high school campaign any better as she pitched an 18-strikeout perfect game win 1-0 in a pitchers’ duel between two Pac-12-bound senior hurlers on Tuesday, March 6 in the Cougar Classic held in San Diego.

Megan stares in ready to record another strikeout in her fantastic start to the 2018 season.

Playing in the Cougar Classic for four games this week, Cathedral Catholic won all four games and Faraimo was nearly untouchable in all four appearances.

For the week she pitched 20 innings with 64 batters faced and recorded 47 strikeouts with only four hits and one walk given up for four wins and a 0.35 ERA. She also went 5-for-11 at the plate for a .455 batting average and one home run.

Faraimo, a 6-foot-1 athlete who also plays volleyball, had to kick off the season with a flawless performance since her pitching opponent in the game, Utah commit Sydney Sandez of Olympian High (Chula Vista, California), also was on her game giving up just three hits and one earned run while striking out nine.

Faraimo was able to keep the Eagles off balance with a hard fastball and a devastating rise ball. Olympian Junior Reina Serrano stated, “The pitch was right there and then it wasn’t.”

Olympian tried to bunt its way on a couple of times but was unable to break through to place a runner on base as Fariamo was in the zone all night, only going to one 3-ball count.

Cathedral scored its only run in the 4th inning on a single by Jayden Cunningham, a sacrifice by Marisa Estrada, and a single by Jacey Bourgeois that ticked off the glove of a leaping Stephanie Alvarez at first base.

The only other hit allowed by Sandez was an infield single in the 7th by Patricia Niu. Sandez was able to keep Cathedrals’ hitters off base by throwing a mix of drops and curves and catcher Sarah Gross called a few well-placed change ups that froze the Cathedral hitters.

Several high school and college coaches were watching the game and a couple stated that you just don’t see a pitcher like Faraimo at the high school level very often.

Coach Margaret Mauro of Cathedral Catholic mentioned after the game that “Faraimo is an excellent volleyball player, but softball: that’s her money maker.”

In an 8-inning win over Vista High on Wednesday, Megan came in the game in the 4th inning and in her five innings of work faced 16 batters and struck 13 of them out, giving up only one hit.

Things were easier on Thursday as Cathedral Catholic run-ruled Torrey Pines 8-1 with the UCLA signee throwing five innings and striking out 8-of-16 batters faced. She also went 3-for-3 at the plate with an RBI.

And finally, on Saturday she only was needed for three innings but in that time faced 11 batters striking out eight of them while giving up just one walk and one hit. Megan also shined offensively hitting a home run in a 10-4 win over Carlsbad High.

Photos of Megan Faraimo by Ulisse Vicinanza

OTHER EXTRA SPECIAL PERFORMANCES:

Shelby Wickersham (Mt. Carmel, New Orleans, Louisiana)

Another standout pitcher who tasted perfection this week was Shelby Wickersham who faced 18 batters on Friday and none reached base as Mt. Carmel went six innings in a 10-0 run rule game win over Belle Chasse in which she struck out 14.

The LSU senior signee also helped her cause with and RBI hit in the third inning as Mt. Carmel scored six runs to blow the game open.

Alexis Kilfoyl (Academy at the Lakes, Land O’ Lakes, Florida)

Another SEC-bound pitcher who has jumped out to a big early season is Lexi Kilfoyl, a top 2019 grad who is committed to Alabama.

The USA Softball Jr. National Team member had 17 strikeouts in a win this week and is now 6-0 for the season with a 0.00 ERA and a miniscule .071 batting average allowed this year.

Lexi has also recorded 59 K’s in 35 innings and is batting .476 with 14 RBI and two home runs.

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