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6th Grader Alexia Carrasquillo Youngest Verbal Ever

Alexis Carrasquillo committing to Florida with coaching staff

When it’s said that Tim Walton and the Florida Gators are cornering the market on young talent, that’s not an exaggeration.

 

 

After last year’s NCAA D1 National Championship runner-up got the first verbal from the Class of 2023 in Mia Williams, the outstanding infielder with Georgia Impact – Fisher and then picked up another talented 7th grader in Beverly Bandits pitcher Keegan Rothcock, the SEC school has picked up a commitment from a pair of “firsts:” the first 6th grader to ever commit as well as the first 11-year-old to give a verbal to a college softball team.

Alexia Carrasquillo—who Extra Inning Softball profiled earlier this week in the feature Meet “The Prodigy:” 6th Grader Alexia Carrasquillo—announced tonight, on the eve of her 12th birthday, that she has officially committed to Florida.

Alexia on trip to Florida locker room

“My dream school was always the Florida Gators,” she told Extra Inning Softball this week. “I lived in Florida from the time I was one year old until the age of nine so my dream has always been to be a Gator!”

Carrasquillo actually committed to Tim Walton and staff on Sunday, January 7 after a strong showing at the Faster2First event held in Vero Beach, Florida.

On the eight-hour drive back to Woodstock, Georgia–the family’s hometown—the athlete and her parents, Raul and Wanda, stopped in Gainesville to meet with Tim Walton and his coaching staff and made it official.

Alexia with Coach Tim Walton

She had previously been to Florida in the fall for the Gators’ camp and had previously taken unofficial visits to UCLA, Oklahoma and also had interest from South Carolina, Georgia, LSU, Washington and Ole Miss.

The athete’s parents are second-generation Puerto Rican descendants and moved to Windermere, Florida when she was an infant. They signed Alexia up for T-Ball at age four and immediately noticed a passion for competition.

“Even in T-Ball,” begins her father, we noticed that she was laser focused. She never played with the dirt and was always eager to learn. Alexia tried diving, ballet, singing, and dancing, but always gravitated back to softball.”

At the age of eight she played up on teams with girls three years older than her including Windermere Wildfire 03 and one day told her dad she wanted to try a new position: catcher.

Before long she was connected with Jen Schroeder of The Package Deal, who lined her up with one of her former students, Gator All-American backstop Aubree.

“We drove up to Gainesville so Aubree could give Alexia lessons, it was awesome!” recalls the athlete’s father. “She was star struck by her, but also grateful to get a lesson from such an amazing catcher.”

Alexia with Jen Schroeder

Said Schroeder, one of the top catching coaches in the nation: “Since the very first time I worked with Alexia over two years ago I knew she was in a league of her own.”

“Beyond her physical abilities, her work-ethic is unrivaled. From getting up before school each morning to workout, to attending a Packaged Deal Clinic in Georgia one night and driving to Florida the very next morning to do it all over again, she sets herself apart in her desire to be the best.”

“It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of Alexia’s inner circle and I cannot wait to see all she accomplishes on her softball journey.”

That softball journey has miles to go before it’s finished, but one goal Alexia has expressed clearly is to someday help Florida win another National Championship, even though it’ll be a long seven years until she hits the Gainesville campus to wear the Gator colors.

“I can’t wait to get to Florida and play where so many greats have played before me,” she said in early January. “This is where I’ve always wanted to be and nothing will be more exciting than being part of helping the Gators add more championship trophies.”

 

 

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