Matt Hobgood

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound senior right-handed pitcher and first baseman led the Cougars to a 25-5 record and the CIF-Southern Section Division I quarterfinals, where they fell to Mater Dei High, 7-4. Hobgood compiled an 11-1 record, a 0.92 ERA, and 101 strikeouts in 68.1 innings this spring, issuing just 26 walks. He also batted .475 with 21 home runs and 55 RBIs, amassing a 1.88 slugging percentage for Norco in 2009. The 2008 Los Angeles Times Player of the Year, Hobgood hit a game-winning two-run home run in the second round of the playoffs against Temecula Valley, also hurling a scoreless inning of relief in the eighth and striking out the side in the process. Hobgood won Norco's opening-round postseason game by pitching a complete-game one-hitter and hitting a pair of home runs against Brea Olinda High. Opposing batters hit just .151 against Hobgood this year, while he has hit safely in 24 of Norco's 30 games.

Hobgood has set school records in career pitching victories, games pitched, innings pitched, shutouts and strikeouts. Offensively, he has set school single-season and career records in home runs and RBIs. With his 39 career home runs, Hobgood also broke the Inland Empire record of 36, set by former Centennial standout Mike Stodolka in 2000.

Hobgood led his club team, the Trombly Braves, to the American Amateur Baseball Congress Don Mattingly World Series Under-17 National Championship in 2007. A CIF Southern Section First Team selection in 2008, he batted .481 with 15 home runs and 45 RBIs as a junior.

Hobgood has maintained a B average in the classroom. Active in multiple community service initiatives as a member of the Crossroads Christian Church Youth Group, he has also volunteered locally as a youth baseball coach and on behalf of numerous fundraising efforts to benefit cancer research.

Hobgood has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Cal State Fullerton University this fall, but is projected as an early round selection in this month's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.