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ESTERO — “Boy, she can hit!”

Florida Gulf Coast University baseball coach Dave Tollett said that as he watched Carmen Paez take wicked batting-cage cuts.

Facing Kennesaw State senior Brittany Matthews, last season’s Atlantic Sun Conference Pitcher of the Year, recently in the opener of an important doubleheader, the Eagles’ Paez hiked her left leg in baseball fashion, whirling the aluminum bat at surreal speed.

The blue-billed batting helmets of the three Eagles on base rose skyward, a familiar pose for FGCU runners after a mammoth Paez swing.

Matthews’ fifth-inning offering landed some 40-50 feet past the right-center field wall, negating the Eagles’ 2-1 deficit.

Yet another homer, Paez’s 22nd, the second-most in A-Sun history. This one was a grand slam, keying FGCU (45-13 and an A-Sun best 13-3) to an 8-2 rout, in which Paez drove in six runs. The Eagles followed that victory with an 8-3 win over the Owls for a doubleheader sweep.

Paez, who set the Division II record with 28 home runs last season, leads all Division I home run hitters in this inaugural Division I campaign. She already is tied for ninth in all-time home run seasons and, with six games left, figures to climb even higher.

Thursday, Paez was named one of the 25 finalists for the 2008 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year (the list will be pared to 10 on May 7, to three on May 21 and the winner will be announced May 27). Last week, Paez was named the A-Sun’s Player of the Week for the third time this season. The week prior, her mug was in Sports Illustrated as one of the “Faces in the Crowd.”

Paez was the 2007 AFCA Division II Player of the Year.

“One of the better hitters I’ve seen in the last 10 years,” said 17th-year Kennesaw State coach Scott Whitlock, who is also a member of the U.S. Softball staff. “I’m very, very impressed with the way she attacks the ball. She goes up there with bad intentions. She doesn’t hope to hit, she intends to hit, and that’s the mind-set of a real good hitter. I think she’s outstanding.”

Trying to explain the ridiculous home run power of Paez, a senior left fielder, FGCU coach David Deiros talked about her visualization and her ability to gauge balls and strikes. Deiros remarked about her studious approach to individual pitching patterns and tendencies, her varying batting stances and her silly-fast bat speed.

Paez grinned and shrugged at Deiros’ cerebral assessment. No offense to her chemistry-instructing coach, but she believes her over-fences power can be boiled down to one element.

“I think the basic thing that any hitter should ever go to bat with is knowing that they’re going to hit the (expletive) out of the ball,” Paez said. “It doesn’t really have to do with how you swing or what your batting stance looks like.”

Third baseman Cheyenne Jenks laughed and nodded at Paez’s self-assessment.

“She just hits the crap out of it,” Jenks said. “Really strong, lot of power. She just gets up there and tries to hit the stuff out of it.”

It goes back to her formative years in Belle Glade.

Her Cuban father, Jose, began throwing, baseball-style, to Paez and her younger sister, Jessica (the Eagles’ starting shortstop), when Carmen was in the first grade. That continued through high school, when Paez also played volleyball and basketball. A supervisor at a sugar mill and bowling alley, Jose told his daughters sports would be their ticket to a college degree.

Softball was an instant hit for Paez.

“When he saw me hit for the very first time, he said I had a swing like a baseball player,” said Paez proudly.

And neither Jose nor his wife, Sherri, who is the softball coach at Belle Glade High, Indian River Community College coach Dale Atkinson nor Deiros have opted to mess with it.

“I try to work with her on fine-tuning, but more than anything else, try and stay out of the way,” Deiros said.

* * *

This journey has been much more complicated than rounding bases for the 23-year-old Paez.

After two years at Indian River, Paez was in softball limbo. Her grades weren’t strong enough to go D-I and she decided to give up the game, opting for a marriage that led to her 3-year-old son, P.J.

Paez was substituting at Belle Glade High and working late hours at a convenience store when Deiros talked to Atkinson about FGCU’s needs, which, at that time, were finding big bats.

Atkinson immediately suggested Paez, who had also been working on securing her academic status.

Deiros needed no introduction to Paez. His first team scrimmaged against Indian River in Fort Pierce and “they smoked us,” Deiros said. “And Carmen was the best player on the team.”

Deiros dropped a dime, leaving a message on Paez’s cell phone as she visited friends in North Carolina. Paez immediately returned the call and, as Deiros said, “The rest is history.”

“I needed that,” Paez said of the opportunity.

“It’s been for the best,” said Jessica, a junior. “My parents are really happy. They’re happy she came back and is playing and going to get her college degree (in criminology). She’s kicking (butt), doing really good for herself.”

Paez divorced in January, allowing her to “relax” and focus on school and softball. P.J. lives with her and Jessica at their Lehigh Acres digs in the offseason but stays with Paez’s parents in Belle Glade during the hectic softball times.

Deiros said he has noted dramatic growth in Paez.

“She’s not about herself anymore,” he said. “Being married at that time and having a young son and knowing that everything you’re doing is not just about yourself, just about the moment, but about the long run ... she’s more mature about what she needs to be doing.”

* * *

While growing up, Paez also has slimmed down.

She was upset with her conditioning in fall drills and attacked the weight on her 5-foot-8 frame with vigor, hoping to become more of a running threat and to cover more ground in the outfield after playing third base last season.

After a month of extra laps and sprints and much fewer calories, Paez saw almost no results.

“I was getting discouraged but I just kept doing it, and all the sudden it just started falling off,” Paez said.

Forty pounds of it.

Paez’s move to the outfield was made possible by the addition of Jessica, who took over at shortstop. The move allowed Jenks to scoot to third, allowing Paez to shift to left field.

“She’s made some amazing catches this year. She can flat-out play,” Deiros said.

* * *

Besides home runs, Paez leads the A-Sun in runs scored (71) and total bases (141). She’s second to Jenks in RBIs (67).

And walks. Sixty-eight times Paez has drawn them. At East Tennessee State, she drew three in one game. It was — and remains — infuriating to her.

“But I get over it,” Paez said. “It shows respect for me.”

Opposing pitchers tend to show something else: fear.

“Most of the time, they kind of look at me like they don’t want to pitch at me,” Paez said. “Then you get these cocky pitchers, which I like, because they want to pitch to me. That gives me a challenge.

“I go up there and I look at the pitches and hope and pray she gives me a ball because I know when I get a hold of it, it’s gone.

n n n

This two-year FGCU ride has been amazing for Paez, and she’s on course to graduate on time.

Deiros knew what was coming with Paez. After all, he said, she had been an “offensive force everywhere she had been.”

He wasn’t sure how she would meld with her mostly younger teammates or in his defensive schemes. Thumbs-up on both counts, Deiros said.

But during both fall camps, Paez struggled at the plate.

“I didn’t think I was going to be this good last year or this year,” Paez said. “Both falls, I had a terrible hitting time. I couldn’t get a hit.

“But Coach kept telling me, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m not worried about you hitting it. It’s going to come through.’

“It has.”

Boy, has it.