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Today, we kickoff our list of the Top 15 Softball Stories of 2018, which will run through December 31st when we’ll present our No. 1 story of the year.
We’ve surveyed the softball community and talked internally as well to come up with what were the most impactful and relevant stories in 2018 pertaining to the world of fastpitch softball.
Where applicable, we are providing links to the original articles and/or references when the story first happened.
Today’s story: the youngest verbal ever which may have been the final catalyst in getting the Early Recruiting Rules implemented just months later
To provide comments, insights or thoughts, email: [email protected].
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There was no doubt Alexia Carrasquillo had impressive talent as a power-hitting catcher and her college interest would bear that out as Top 10-claiber programs from across the nation would pursue her.
It came as no shock, then, that she would get an offer from Florida and ultimately commit to Tim Walton.
The eyebrow-raising aspect of her verbal, however, was her age: Alexia was offered and committed to the Gators a few weeks before her 12th birthday and was the first sixth grader to ever commit.
Extra Inning Softball broke the story on February 1, 2018 as one of our first major news features.
Walton had gone after promising young players before, getting the first 7th graders ever to commit in infielder Mia Williams from Florida followed shortly thereafter by pitcher Keagan Rothrock.
The Florida head coach certainly wasn’t afraid to play the odds in the high risk/high reward game of getting young prodigies locked up early, but it may have been the catalyst for those who worried the early commits, which were getting younger and younger, were getting out of hand.
At the 2017 NFCA Convention in Las Vegas, the push was made to recommend Early Recruiting Rules be put into play prohibiting prospective student athletes (PSAs) from not only being offered and thus committing, but even being contacted. By April, rules were in place limiting PSA contact and the recruiting process switched more for college coaches tracking older players.
As for Alexia, she played with Josh Fisher’s team over the summer and this fall under the Georgia Impact banner and when Fisher moved to the Mojo organization recently, several of his key players including Mia Williams followed as well as players committed to other SEC schools like Georgia and South Carolina.
Saturday night, Alexia along with her parents, Raul and Wanda, decided to follow Fisher and today it was announced she’s officially on the Mojo 04-Fisher team, although she’s the only ’06 on the squad.
She’s also still a Gator commit, as far as the new rules can allow for that to be in place, and this weekend went to a Univ. of Florida camp where she hung out with several other UF commits including Rothrock.
About 11 months after committing, we asked the athlete’s father and mother today if they would do it the same knowing all they know now.
