RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
The fun part of our job at Extra Inning Softball when it comes to following and profiling young recruits is discovering how every player’s journey is different. When she gets to realize a huge success—like committing to her dream school, no matter at what age it may be—it’s wonderful to see the happiness that radiates from the hard-working athlete and her rightfully proud parents, family members and coaches.
Do this long enough and you get excited to cheer them on from the youngest of age divisions sometimes (10U is usually the youngest) up through making the Team USA National Team.
For example, when USA Softball announced its list of the Top 25 Finalists for Collegiate Player of the Year, I went through the list and realized I had interviewed and/or worked with 22 of the 25 players.
That’s what I thought of when I got a note from Mike Suarez saying that his 8th grade daughter, Ramsey, had committed UCLA Tuesday night, just before the clock struck 12 and the no-recruiting contact rule went into play.
I first became aware of Coach Suarez and Ramsey when their So Cal A’s – Mercado/Suarez team won the USSSA National Championship in 2015. Ramsey was a shortstop on that team and already had a cannon for an arm.
In the spring of 2016, I ranked that A’s team as one of the top dozen 12U teams in the country in large part because Ramsey had developed into a big power-hitting third basemen who soon would move on to Dave Mercado’s A’s 2022 team.
Last summer, though her birthday was Dec. 16, she was still close to being a 12U player still, but on the 14U team as a first year player tore it up offensively, either leading the team or finishing in the Top 3 of almost every offensive category.
Ramsey then was moved up to the A’s-Mercado 2020 Premier 14U squad for PGF Nationals and for the Colorado Jr. Sparkler All-Star game where she went 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles (check out the video below and see the two doubles starting at the 2:08 mark).
For the last two years, she has been one of the team’s leading hitters on a squad loaded with talented freshman and for much of that time led the team in home runs and ranked highly in RBI–Ramsey is the ideal run-generating power-hitter you want in the middle of your line-up.
Working with Dave Mercado for years, she’s honed her skills and UCLA, her dream school, began to notice. As detailed below, Ramsey went to a Bruin camp in December before she took her first unofficial to the school in March. Here we are just about a month or so later and she’s committed to be part of the Bruin family!
I asked Coach Suarez about their particular journey to get to this happy point and like, a wise coaching father often does, he delegated to Ramsey’s mom, Alisa!
Below is her perspective on the recruiting process and how it started to accelerate in December up through today.