Vitals: Senior, pitcher/shortstop

He's qualified because: Went 11-1 with a 2.40 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 81 2/3 innings, also played shortstop and hit .402 with seven home runs, 41 RBIs and 27 runs for a team that went 29-4 (setting the school record for wins) and finished second in the Central Section Division I playoffs and fourth-ranked in the state by Cal-Hi Sports.

He said it: "We were pretty confident he'd have an exceptional season and be one of the premier players in our league and area, and he was. He was not only very talented, but a great teammate." — Clovis West coach Kevin Patrick

Eric Karch was a sixth-grader with vision in 2004 when Mike Colla's right arm and bat powered Clovis West High to its first Central Section baseball title.

"I always looked up to him, throwing and hitting bombs left and right," Karch says of the 2004 Bee Player of the Year. "I always pictured myself doing the same things."

Sure enough, six year later, Karch not only produced Colla-like combination numbers, but he, too, is The Bee's Player of the Year.

"I kind of put it all together, and it was something special," says Karch, who went 11-1 as a pitcher, also played shortstop and hit .402 with seven home runs and 41 RBIs for a 29-4 team that was briefly top-ranked nationally by Baseball America and finished No. 4 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports.

Yes, Karch was special, and not far from perfection, either — until he ran into Buchanan in the section Division I title game.

The Bears won it 7-5. But the 6-foot-3, 190-pound right-hander beat Buchanan 3-1 and 4-1 during the Tri-River Athletic Conference season, striking out 20 and giving up one earned run in 14 innings.

"It definitely would have been an incredible ending to the year to pull it off," says Karch, whose team was 3-0 against Buchanan entering the final. "But I've got plenty of games down the road, so I really can't hang my hat on one game."

Karch's reward is Malibu and a scholarship to Pepperdine, where he wowed Waves coach Steve Rodriguez at a camp before his junior year — seven months after playing junior varsity at Clovis West. Karch had a college offer before he played a varsity game.

Karch apparently had varsity level talent as a sophomore, but in a program that had depth and would produce three major-college pitchers a year later, Eagles coach Kevin Patrick asked him to play JV.

"He stayed there and worked that much harder, which spoke volumes of the kid," Patrick says. "We knew once his time would come, he'd be our ace. And we were pretty confident he'd be one of the premier players in our league and area."

Karch played a strong supporting role in 2009 for a team that also placed second in the section. And he was primed for 2010, evident in an opening 6-1, 7-5 sweep of Rocklin.

He beat the then-No. 8 team in the state with a three-hitter and homered in the first game, and played flawless defense at shortstop while going 2-for-4 with a double and RBI in the second.

"I told Eric to ‘go out there and show you're the best player on the field,' and he did," Patrick says. "That set the stage for what would be an outstanding all-around season."

The TRAC Player of the Year struck out 90 and walked only 21 in 81 2/3 innings. And, offensively, he also had 10 doubles, a triple, at least one RBI in 24 of 33 games and hit safely in 28 games.

"He was a pleasure to coach," Patrick says. "Not only was he very talented, he was a great teammate, super competitive, a leader and great role model on a team that had a lot of young players."