![\"Carlsbad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-preps-0407-002.jpg\")
Carlsbad High School center fielder Gabriela Nevarez singles against Del Norte at Carlsbad High School on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Carlsbad, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nCARLSBAD \u2014 Some people are born to become painters, politicians, poets or plumbers. Carlsbad High School\u2019s Gabriela Nevarez was born to hold an aluminum bat in her hands, stand in the left-handed batter\u2019s box and smack pitches on the outside of the plate to left-center for doubles.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoftball is in her blood,\u201d said Tony Rico, Nevarez\u2019s Huntington Beach-based travel coach.<\/p>\n
Nevarez\u2019s grandfather, Larry Maze, was the first youth softball coach inducted into the USA Softball Hall of Fame. He mentored the legendary Lisa Fernandez, along with a slew of other girls who went on to stardom, including San Diego State head softball coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz.<\/p>\n
Nevarez\u2019s mother, Laurie, earned All-Pac 10 softball honors at UCLA. She played and coached on UCLA teams that won national championships and was a college head coach for 15 years.<\/p>\n
The day before Gabriela was born, Laurie was wrapping up practice at the University of Redlands when her water broke. Eight hours later, Gabriela came kicking and screaming into the world.<\/p>\n
As a toddler, Gabriela crawled about the UCLA clubhouse at reunions. And at 7, Gabriela, Gabby to family and friends, told herself, \u201cI want to be the best I can at this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevarez turned 18 on Sunday. She\u2019s now a senior at Carlsbad, the No. 2-ranked team in the CIF San Diego Section. After sitting out her junior season to get faster, stronger and focus on the mental aspects of her game, she\u2019s enjoying a remarkable final high school season.<\/p>\n
Nevarez is hitting .605 (23-for-38), has scored 24 runs in 12 games and slugged a section-leading nine home runs. She hit a combined three home runs in her first two high school seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of kids,\u201d said Rico, who has coached for 36 years. \u201cThe first time I saw her swing a bat (at 15), I said, \u2018She\u2019s something special.\u2019 Ken Griffey Jr. registered in my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlsbad High School center fielder Gabriela Nevarez singles against Del Norte at Carlsbad High School on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Carlsbad, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Nevarez\u2019s freshman season at Carlsbad in 2023 was indeed something special. Playing against girls three years older, she hit .494 (39 for 79) and scored a team-leading 29 runs. Her sophomore season was good by most standards, but paled in comparison to her freshman season. She hit .302 and scored 20 runs, second on the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely realized after that season I was going to have to work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A year later, having already committed to the University of Arizona, she decided to sit out her junior season, unusual for a player of Nevarez\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was completely her decision,\u201d said Laurie Nevarez.<\/p>\n
Gabriela said she wanted to work on her speed and \u201cgrinding out my fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n
That, she said, mainly pertained to \u201cworking on the mental side of hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing what a pitcher is going to throw you on certain counts is one of the most important things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
To improve her speed, Nevarez ran track at Carlsbad. In September, she began working with Desean Berger, a certified strength and conditioning coach in Vista. In that time, her vertical leap has improved from 14\u00bd inches to 19.2 inches. Her time running from a dead stop to 10 yards has decreased from 1.97 seconds to 1.67 seconds. Fifteen months ago, she could squat 170 pounds. Now she squats 225.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe works her (butt) off,\u201d said Berger.<\/p>\n
![\"Carlsbad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-preps-0407-001.jpg\")
Carlsbad High School center fielder Gabriela Nevarez before batting against Del Norte at Carlsbad High School on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Carlsbad, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
As a result, Nevarez is faster and stronger. The strength is evident in her hitting. As a freshman and sophomore at Carlsbad, 20 of her 65 hits went for extra bases (30.1%). This season, 11 of her 23 hits are for extra bases (47.8%).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very clear all the work she put in during the offseason is paying off dividends, both offensively and defensively,\u201d said Carlsbad assistant coach Tori Nirschl, a Lancers alum who played at Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
In a 6-1 win over Del Norte last week, the 5-foot-8\u00bd Nevarez made the defensive play of the game, sprinting back in center field, then leaping at the last moment to steal extra bases from Lainey Llamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat,\u201d said Carlsbad coach Jared Miller, \u201cwas Gabby being an athlete. She passes all the eye tests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevarez practices visualization before every game, standing by herself, bat in hand, visualizing how that day\u2019s pitcher will pitch her. Her travel team hitters stand in a circle before games, practicing visualization.<\/p>\n
Nevarez\u2019s mental approach to the game is so detailed that she pays attention to how a pitcher breathes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI even look at their blinking,\u201d she said. \u201cI can tell when they\u2019re under stress by their faster movements. Their body language shows they\u2019re more anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says pitchers are more likely to make mistakes when they\u2019re anxious.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll miss over the middle of the plate, and I get to hit that over the fence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Carlsbad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-preps-0407-003.jpg\")
Carlsbad High School center fielder Gabriela Nevarez singles against Del Norte at Carlsbad High School on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Carlsbad, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Nevarez drives to Anaheim once a week for a hitting lesson. After a nearly two-hour team practice last week, Nevarez headed to batting cages in San Marcos to work on her swing for an hour with her mother.<\/p>\n
Regarding Nevarez\u2019s preparation and dedication, Miller said: \u201cShe\u2019s a different breed, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Nevarez running track instead of playing softball last season \u2014 she didn\u2019t attend a single game because she was so busy \u2014 the Lancers finished 8-15. It was the program\u2019s second losing record in 15 seasons.<\/p>\n
This season, with Nevarez pulling home runs over the right-field scoreboard and onto the tennis courts, the Lancers are 12-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never looked at this season to get insane stats,\u201d said Nevarez, whose GPA is over 4.0. \u201cAll I wanted to do is continue my love for the sport. Just have fun. High school is a break from club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the girls every day. We have our inside jokes. We mess around. I\u2019m happy to be out here, playing well and repping the Carlsbad jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARLSBAD \u2014 Some people are born to become painters, politicians, poets or plumbers. Carlsbad High School\u2019s Gabriela Nevarez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2044,181,74,76,75,127,1696],"class_list":["post-254539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-high-school-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}