Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Evan Fraser is the 2024 Humboldt Sports baseball Player of the Year.

By Ray Hamill — With another season safely in the books, it’s time to name the Humboldt Sports player, team and coach of the year in baseball.

Earlier this month, McKinleyville senior Evan Fraser was named Big 5 MVP after a stellar spring and he can now add Humboldt Sports Baseball Player of the Year to his resume.

Fraser, who will begin playing at Hawaii Hilo in the fall, capped a very good high school career with an outstanding senior campaign.

He played a pivotal role in leading the Panthers to a Big 5 championship and the program’s first-ever Charles Lakin tournament title.

The Panthers may have fallen short in their bid for a North Coast Section championship, but that didn’t take from Fraser’s big senior season and the undeniable influence he had with the team.

The staff ace didn’t overpower opposing batters, but he continually and consistently frustrated them with pinpoint accuracy, while allowing a stellar Mack defense make the plays behind him.

“He just had a great season,” McKinleyville head coach Mike Dobrec said of Fraser. “Every time he stepped on the mound he gave us the opportunity to win.

“He just put a great exclamation point on his high school career this year. I wish him the best. Hawaii Hilo is lucky to get him and I think he’ll do well. Evan’s going to compete wherever he goes.”

Fraser was a threat both on the mound and at the plate 

He finished 8-0 in 11 appearances on the hill with an impressive ERA of just 1.12, and he also averaged a team-best .476 at the plate with 14 RBIs.

And Fraser isn’t the only McKinleyville honoree in our end-of-season baseball awards.

After leading his team to such an historic campaign, Dobrec is the 2024 Humboldt Sports Baseball Coach of the Year.

The outstanding head coach influenced his players in several ways and always had them well prepared and ready to go.

If a team’s demeanor is a reflection of its head coach — and it alway inevitably is — then the composed Dobrec was the perfect fit for this year’s Panthers.

He had a lot of talent at his disposal, but he also got the best out of his players every step of the way and put them in a position to win game after game.

And a sure sign the coach is doing something right is when you see a team continue to grow as the season progresses, something the Panthers did, as well as the obvious development of several freshmen players on this year’s roster.

The Mack boys won 15 straight games before losing their NCS semifinal at Piedmont, and when all was said and done no other H-DNL team came close to matching the Panthers. 

Assistant coaches Jeremy Sargent, Ryan Baxter, Ray Luzzi and Regan Wolfe also deserve plenty of credit for the team’s success this spring.

And rounding out our end-of-season awards, the 2024 Humboldt Sports Baseball Team of the Year goes to the Ferndale Wildcats.

Under the guidance of head coach Justin Andersen — who also garnered some serious consideration for coach of the year — the Wildcats had an historic season they won’t easily forget and arguably played the best team ball of any H-DNL team this spring.

The Cats were a threat from one through nine on any given day, both offensively and defensively, and they lost just once in the regular season on their way to a first Little 4 championship in 19 years.

And that was far from their only achievement this spring.

They followed their conference championship by winning the H-DNL’s only North Coast Section title in baseball this year, defeating Point Arena 17-5 in the final one year after they lost in a section championship showdown.

Under Andersen’s guidance, along with assistant coach Lane Stapp, the Wildcats would go on to win their NorCal state playoff opener for the first time ever, capping a memorable campaign and one the Ferndale community will relish.

The team was led by seniors Levi Dixon, Trent Titus, Austin Michel, Thomas Fergison and Wes Renner, along with junior Little 4 MVP Parker Prior, among others.