Palo Verde baseball player earns prestigious honor from Gatorade

Palo Verde third baseman and right-handed pitcher Drew Kaplan was named 2023-24 Gatorade Nevada Baseball Player of the Year on Monday.

Kaplan had a .483 batting average his senior season and hit seven home runs. He helped lead Palo Verde to the Class 5A state title last month.

“This award means a lot for me and my family,” Kaplan said. “There has been a ton of work behind the scenes that people don’t see, and this award represents all that work paying off. It also represents the trust my teammates had in me to be a leader and catalyst on a championship team.”

Kaplan, a first-team 5A all-state selection by the coaches, hit .565 in the postseason to help Palo Verde emerge out of a wide-open 5A with the Southern Region and state titles.

“Drew Kaplan has been a coach’s dream this year with his display of character, sportsmanship, determination, dedication and leadership for our team,” Palo Verde coach Dustin Romero said in a statement. “The intensity that he brought to the ballpark every single day was beyond measurable. There is no way we would have won a state championship without him.”

Kaplan, listed at 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, is the first Palo Verde baseball player to be named Gatorade Nevada Baseball Player of the Year. He has signed his National Letter of Intent to play college baseball at the College of Southern Nevada. CSN qualified for this year’s National Junior College Athletic Association World Series.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.