Love Cabanas Wins Cal JC NFCA Catcher of the Year
Love Cabanas threw out base stealers, hit nine home runs, and anchored a 43-3 team — then walked away with both the NFCA Catcher of the Year and the Rawlings Gold Glove. Here is what the dual honor teaches every young catcher about how the best programs evaluate you.
The College of San Mateo went 43-3 this spring. The Bulldogs were seeded first in the 3C2A state championship tournament — California community college softball’s top bracket. They pushed all the way to the semifinals while defending a prior state title.
Love Cabanas was behind the plate the whole way.
Cabanas is a sophomore at College of San Mateo in San Mateo, California. She came into the 2026 season already known as a two-way catcher. She left it with two pieces of hardware that almost never go to the same player.
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association named her the Cal JC Diamond Sports/NFCA Catcher of the Year. That is the top honor the NFCA gives to a catcher at the California community college level. Rawlings then added the Cal JC Gold Glove Award — the positional excellence recognition that Rawlings presents to the best defender at each spot on the softball field. Cabanas also earned NFCA First-Team All-American and North Region first-team All-American honors.
Two awards. One catcher. That almost never happens. The skills that earn the defensive award and the skills that earn the Catcher of the Year do not always share the same body.
Here is what Cabanas put together in 2026:
| Category | 2026 stat |
|---|---|
| Batting average | .412 |
| Home runs | 9 |
| RBI | 34 |
| Runs scored | 24 |
| Fielding percentage | .994 |
| Runners thrown out | 7 of 19 (37% CS rate) |
The batting line is real. Nine home runs on a team that totaled 71 on the season — Cabanas was a genuine part of that offense. But the number that tells the deeper story is the fielding percentage. A .994 is nearly pristine. In fact, it means she went an entire season blocking pitches and fielding bunts without anything close to a routine error.
Then there is the arm. She threw out 7 of 19 would-be base stealers, a 37 percent caught-stealing rate. At the community college level, runners are fast and pitchers are sharp. So that rate does not happen by accident. It requires three things: first, read the pitcher’s delivery to get ahead of the running start. Then make a clean exchange out of the crouch. Finally, release the throw on a tight line to second. Cabanas ran that sequence well enough to be recognized as the best in the Cal JC. She did it while batting .412.
In fact, that is what the award committees were saying when they gave her both trophies. The best coaches and evaluators are not choosing between a catcher’s defense and her offense. Instead, they are watching to see if she built both. A catcher who shuts down the running game while also driving in 34 runs has already answered the hardest question a program is going to ask.
CSM’s 43-3 record means Cabanas won behind a dominant team. Still, dominant teams need someone to call the game, stop the run, and hold the lead in the seventh inning. She did all of that. No transfer destination has been announced as of this publication.
The two-way catcher is harder to be. It also takes more work: footwork drills and batting practice, defense and offense, every day. But Love Cabanas proved in 2026 that the work is worth it. Because the catchers who do both are the ones who end the season holding the hardware.
That could be you.
Try this at your next practice
- Pop-time footwork reps. Set up in your catching stance and have a coach or partner simulate a pitch. Focus on your transfer — ball to throwing hand — and get your feet moving toward second as you rise. Time yourself from catch to release. Cabanas’s 37 percent caught-stealing rate is built on clean exchanges, not just arm strength. Ten reps at the start of every practice builds the habit.
- Blocking and fielding clean-up. Ask your coach to give you ten balls in the dirt and ten slow rollers toward the plate, back to back. The goal is a .994 fielding percentage across a full season — that kind of number comes from making routine plays automatic. Pristine defense is not about the diving stops. It is about never muffing the ordinary ones.
- Two-strike plate approach. Cabanas hit .412 behind a team with 71 home runs. Catchers who hit at that level take their at-bats seriously. Work with your coach on a two-strike approach: choke up, protect the plate, and put the ball in play. A catcher who refuses to give at-bats away is a catcher who stays in the lineup.
Sources: 2026 Diamond Sports/NFCA Catcher of the Year collegiate recap · Rawlings Gold Glove Cal JC 2026 (NFCA) · Rawlings Softball Gold Glove announcement (X / Rawlings Softball) · CSM softball state championship playoff (College of San Mateo News) · CSM softball caps historic 2026 season (College of San Mateo News)
