SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Before the long recruiting process, before stepping onto a collegiate softball field, softball was already ingrained in Isabella Fuentes' identity.

It was never really a question of whether she would play, only how far she would take it.

"My parents were the ones who started it all," Fuentes said. "I was kind of born into it. My whole family played. I started baseball at three because I was too young for a girl."

From the beginning of her life, she was not only learning the game but also fully growing up in the sport.

Finding Comfort In The Hot Corner
As she developed as a student-athlete, Fuentes found comfort on the field.

"I was familiar. I was already catching my foot," she said. "Catching and third was once I got to middle school, that's when I was working."

But like many student-athletes, her own journey was not without adjustments, especially when it came to where she fully belonged on defense.

"I was moved to the right side. I didn't like it every time. It's just comfort," she said. "You can move me anywhere, but when I moved to the right side, I was like, 'Oh, this is not good for me, only third base'."

Her realization was not about her specific preference but about her identity. To Fuentes, third base was not only a hot corner position. It was where she felt most like herself.

The Art Of Softball Being Passed Down
Behind Bella Fuentes's athletic journey lies her growth, which reflects the support she has received. A system shaped by her family via her mother, who understood what it meant to navigate the college softball process alone.

"I have a parent who started in college," Fuentes said. "She loved helping me with my recruiting process. She helped with my emails and took me to my softball camps. She pushes me and supports me."

This form of support came from experience and formed a desire to make a difference on the diamond.

"She didn't have support, and she realized that she had to figure that out," she said. "She realized I don't want my kids to be on their own."

For Fuentes, that form of maternal presence made a drastic difference during one of the most vulnerable stages in her softball career. Because Fuentes was recruited during a coaching change for the Gauchos softball team, she, instead of facing this fear alone, relied on her teammates and the newly hired (at the time) Head Coach, Jo Evans, to help her build her confidence from the ground up.

"I was so scared. That somebody doesn't want me. It felt like a punch," she said. "If a person came in from recruitment and thought you had not been there with me. So I thought they'd see it as, I'm not interested. She [Coach Jo Evans] built it up from scratch. She's been the best."

Learning What It Means To Be Confident
Even with her talents and support system, confidence does not come overnight.

"It was confidence," Fuentes said. I would play like 'oh my gosh, are people gonna like me'. It's like a little stress."

This mental hurdle is something athletes quietly face, but it became one of the most important areas of growth in her collegiate career, especially at the very beginning.

"I would say my freshman year," Fuentes said. "I did not play, but I really felt it, obviously young at the time. But she gave me an opportunity."

And when she applied herself hard at third base, Head Coach Jo Evans put her in the game, and she recalls that "I felt like I was seeing the ball."

A Senior Looking Back At Her Career
As Bella Fuentes' collegiate softball career as a Gaucho slowly comes to an end, her journey at UCSB was never defined by a single moment or finished product.

It is still actively unfolding. Shaped by a wide variety of growths, resilience, and the constant push to become more comfortable in her own identity.

From a young girl stepping onto the baseball field to a collegiate athlete finding her own journey to confidence, her story is rooted in persistence. And while the positions may shift and stakes may continue to rise, one thing has remained constant:

She built herself from the dirt up.