When Carly Jimenez completed her Liberty Hawks softball career, her name was littered all over the program’s record book.
She broke the school record for triples in a career and is ranked top five in a number of other offensive categories.
So, it was no question Jimenez was going to college to play softball. But, the real question was where.
In the end, Jimenez picked CSU Monterey Bay over St. Mary’s, Fresno State and San Jose State.
“I went to a camp in January, 2025,” Jimenez said. “They (Monterey Bay)told me after the camp they would continue looking at me. In June, when I was leaving for Colorado, the coach wanted to talk to me. We talked in Colorado, and she gave me a week to decide.”
She did have serious thoughts about going to Fresno State to join former Liberty teammates Rylee Bocchini and Ari Aguayo, but a coaching change hindered those plans.
“I felt like I was getting more love from Monterey Bay,” Jimenez said. “I also loved the campus. It was in a really nice area. They talked about the atmosphere and the community.”
Jimenez graduated from Liberty with a 3.3 grade point average. She will major in psychology to become a sports psychologist.
Jimenez, a rare left-handed catcher, says she will have an opportunity to play from the start, especially behind the plate.
She caught her freshman year, then played first her sophomore year. She started the last two years behind the plate. She was also stuck behind Bocchini, whose name is also littered in the record books.
“I enjoyed playing with Rylee a lot,” Jimenez said. “She helped push myself a lot more. Seeing her, I wanted to be just like her, or greater.”
One of the benefits for Jimenez was catching Macie Webster, who was the team’s ace the past two season. The two developed a bond that carried them to a Central Section title in 2025 and multiple league titles.
“It was nice to play with her,” Jimenez said. “I created a bond with her. I was able to trust her. If she had any trouble, she would talk to me. She had a lot of trust in me.”
One of Jimenez’s “quirks” is a glove clap she does before every pitch while she’s catching. That came from when she was younger that she carries today.
“When I was younger, I went to a catching camp down in UCLA in Orange County,” she said. “We would copy what the coach was going, and she clapped her glove each time. I copied her. It just stuck with me. Pitchers like it, too. They focus more when they hear my clap.”
Although Jimenez is an accomplished hitter with numerous marks in Liberty history, she said her favorite part of her game is catching. She also is most proud of her RBI numbers because it helps the team the most.
Jimenez is a four-time All-Northwest Sequoia Conference first team selection, and a four-time All-Madera Tribune selection. She was The Madera Tribune’s Co-Most Valuable Player, and was also The Madera Tribune’s Sportsmanship Award winner for Liberty this year.
By playing at Liberty and with her travel team, playing in college was the goal. She went to plenty of camps with her travel softball team.
Jimenez officially signed her National letter of Intent on September 1 last year.
“It was a really good feeling. I felt like I accomplished something really well,” she said. “My mom reminded me that it was just a start. You have to prove yourself again in college. Just because you made it doesn’t mean you’re done. You have to keep pushing yourself.”
There was good and bad from signing before the season started. The good was she was more relaxed into her senior year, but the bad was she had to live up to those expectations.
“I felt more pressure at the beginning of the year. I was stressed because I wasn’t performing as well as I wanted to,” she said. “I put in more work on what I needed to focus on.”
She said a lot of stress lifted off her shoulders after a home run in a game against Buchanan early in the season.
“I was worried I hadn’t hit any before that. Once I hit that, I relaxed a lot more,” she said.
Now that she is signed, all she has to worry about is to enjoy her travel ball season, enjoy a vacation with her friends and get ready for the next year.
“I don’t have to stress,” she said. “I’m still playing travel with Unity. We have a lot of younger girls, so we’re going to a lot of showcases. The older girls are tuning up and seeing competition heading into college.”
With all of her high school behind her, Jimenez is gearing up to her season at Monterey Bay, but still has some “flaws” in her game she wants to improve on.
“I want to make more outs with catching,” she said. “I’m working on my pick-offs. I want to hit the ball on the ground more in the gaps. They didn’t challenge me behind the plate in high school.”