Bella Carazo: Saints Pitcher Extraordinaire

May 2, 2024Sports0

Mt. Hood Community College has an awesome softball pitcher this year, in freshman Bella Carazo, who covers first base for the Saints when she’s not pitching.

Carazo grew up in Bonney Lake, Washington, not far from Tacoma. This is her first year playing in the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) and she is already making standout performances for her team, tied for first place in the South division entering the last two weeks of the season.

Carazo won NWAC “pitcher of the week” honors in the second week of April. She went 2-0 in the circle (pitcher’s mound) for the Saints as she led the Mt. Hood pitching staff that allowed just one run in four games in a crossover series played in Yakima. She didn’t allow a run in 11 innings pitched, striking out 20 hitters while allowing only two hits and four walks total. “She shut out tough opponents in Treasure Valley and Edmonds, both by 9-0 scores,” the NWAC reported.

I’m not a softball sport expert by any means, but it sounds like I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of that pitcher-batter battle if Carazo is throwing straight heat at me.

Her numbers for the 2024 season are wild. Through May 1, she leads the NWAC in wins (14-2 overall), earned run average (1.21) and strikeouts (188).

The latter is especially notable, said Saints Head Coach Brittany Hendrickson.

“She is on her way to breaking Mt. Hood’s single-season strikeout record while having about (half) as many innings pitched,” Hendrickson noted. “She faced some tough hitters from the East and North (divisions) and showed why she is one of the best in the NWAC!”

Carazo told me her father introduced softball into her life, and she has been playing for 11 years now. She has played many sports, but “I tried summer ball one time and just loved it,” she said.

She is studying business here at MHCC and hopes to go to cosmetology school after she graduates.

Photos by Andrew Hull

With the accolades she is earning now I have no doubt that she will build a great career for herself, wherever life takes her.

She has shown so much drive and commitment to the game of softball, living up to her personal credo, “Enjoy every season of life you’re in.”