When Paetynn Lopez, former all-star catcher on PSU's Women's Softball Team, was 10-years-old, she played on a girls' softball team that needed a catcher.  She volunteered, having no idea that decision would lead to her playing professional softball in Mexico for Naranjeros, based in Hermosilla, Sonora.
   
She recently finished her second season with the team and this summer will move on to Zurich, Switzerland, for a less intensive summer season with a team there.
   
In her first year with the Naranjeros, Lopez hit between .250 and .300 all season (her very first hit was a home run) and she was chosen to play in the league's first all-star game.
     
"My first hit of the season was a home run, which made history for the team since it was their first year as a team."  Playing in the All-Star Game "was a really fun experience.  They flew us to Leon and we played with players throughout the league.  We were split into two teams (North and South) so we got to play a game with all the great players of the other teams as well.  It was definitely a highlight from that season."
     
Lopez's work ethic, consistency and competitive mindset are what makes her an effective hitter, said Viking Head Softball Coach Meadow McWhorter, who recruited the W.F. West High School star to play for PSU.  "We believed Paetynn could make a major impact on our program.  But what stood out even more once she got here was just how consistently she worked for everything she earned.  She's tough in the box, never backs down and competes for every pitch…and she has the ability to rise in big moments, which is something you cannot teach."   
        
It's been quite a trip from that 10u team in Chehalis, WA, which besides fulfilling a late-developed dream to continue softball after college, has helped scratch a travel itch she's had since grade school.
    
Lopez was an athlete from early on, running 5k races with her dad John in kindergarten.  Both parents had been high school athletes, so heading in that direction seemed natural.  She began wrestling in the first grade and picked up basketball and softball following third grade.  In middle school, she added volleyball and ran track.
    
But it was playing on that 10u team in the fifth grade that set her on this amazing adventure.
    
"When I was in 10u, we had no one on the team who wanted to be a catcher.  I was asked to play there and fell in love with it.  I was naturally good at it and my coach thought the position was good for me because I was naturally strong," Lopez recalls.
      She excelled at the position in high school and was named First-Team All-League and to the All-Area team three times and All-State Catcher in 2019 while helping her team to a WIAA 2A State Championship in 2017, district championships in 2017 and 2018 and Evergreen Conference Championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
     
Of course, that brought her to the attention of collegiate coaches, especially since she was also on the conference all-academic team her last two years.
    
Lopez took unofficial visits to Louisville and Minnesota.   She received interest from Bradley and Boston College after she had committed to Portland State.
     
"The very first meeting I had with Coach Meadow, I was still very young and beginning my recruiting journey.  She just reassured me that they were very interested in me and said I should experience other colleges before committing anywhere.  That's where Coach stood out.  She cared for me as a person, not just for my abilities, and she showed me that from the first meeting," Lopez says.
     
At PSU, she just got better and better.
     
"She has the ability to manage the game, connect with pitchers and stay calm in big moments.  She is dependable, detail-oriented and incredibly competitive.  What I always appreciated most was that she never needed to be loud to lead.  She had a quiet confidence that pitchers trusted.  That kind of presence is a big part of what makes a catcher so valuable," McWhorter says.
     
As a freshman, Lopez says she didn't play a lot (senior catcher in front of her).  "I was super shy but each year I felt in some shape or form I was growing to become a stronger leader and person."
    
Lopez's entire college career was a highlight.
     
"My whole four years were the highlight.  Looking back, I miss it.  Yes, it was about pursuing my dream of playing at a high level and being the best I could be on the field.  But it wasn't all about that.  It was about the people and the experience.  I'm realizing, as I continue playing professionally, it's about the people and the experience just as much as it's about playing," says Lopez.
    
Still, if there has to be a single highlight, Lopez admits it would be playing on a team that won the Big Sky Conference Championship her first year and playing in the NCAA postseason tournament in Seattle.
    
As her senior season wound down, Lopez said she thought her playing days were finished.  A former Viking teammate invited her to play on a Midwest summer professional team and she decided "I'd be silly not to take the experience." 
    
Extending that was part of a more encompassing personal assessment.
    
"When I was told about the league in Mexico, I was hesitant about playing in a different country.  I had multiple conversations with people in my circle and even made a pros and cons list," she says.
     
Overall, the opportunity was too good to let slip, so she put her name in for the draft and sent videos.  The Naranjeros chose her as one of six to eight non-Mexican nationals each team is allowed to sign.
     
At first, she was nervous about the level of play.  She hadn't constantly faced pitching at this level in her collegiate career and was playing on a team with players form American powerhouse collegiate teams like Rutgers, Tennessee and University of Central Florida.
     
"At first, I was nervous about the level of play.  I had doubts that I could compete at this level…until I got my first hit as a pro (that home run)," says Lopez.  Her confidence has just grown since then.    
      
Lopez says she's wanted to experience travel and different cultures since she was in grade school and is taking full advantage of that opportunity in her current position…she's in Mexico for the 2 ½ month Naranjeros' season and will spend three months in Europe this summer playing and exploring her travel bug.
   
She'd like to play for a couple more years and currently isn't sure what a post-softball world looks like.
    
She earned a social science degree from PSU and says she's always been drawn towards emotionally healing people.  "I'll figure out the 'after softball' life as it comes.  I do have a small business of mentoring and coaching young athletes in my 'off-season' called Behind The Diamond."
     
And McWhorter isn't surprised at Lopez's success on the professional level.
  
"Paetynn was just different in the best way.  She is one of the hardest-working players I have ever coached.  She carried herself with a quiet confidence and inner fire that made her really special.  She was tough, consistent and fully vested in getting better.  She earned everything she got and I think that is a huge reason she continues to have success in the game."