Before Mary Haff, a 2017 pitcher from Lake Region High in Eagle Lake, Fla., threw her first pitch for high school, she had received her first of what would be more than two dozen Div. I offers from major schools in conferences ranging from the ACC to the Big Ten to the Ivy League (she has a 4.0 GPA).

Last December we profiled Mary after her freshman year in which she had helped her team win the Florida 6A state title.

Her sophomore campaign was equally strong as she earned All-State honors after leading the county with a regular season ERA of 0.19.

Mary plays travel ball with Coach Dave Lotti’s Rhode Island Thunder 18U Gold team and for the summer went 21-3 with 134 K’s in 83 innings.

In the last two weeks, Mary made her college decision final and here, in her own words, recaps the recruiting process including why she didn’t commit early and how and why she ultimately decided to head to the one particular SEC school…

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I started being recruited before high school and was tempted by some outstanding schools to make my decision early, but I choose to wait and make sure my decision would be something the college coaches and I were both going to be satisfied with when I reached signing day.

I had heard too many stories of players committing early and changing their minds or not getting the offer they were expecting on signing day.

I met some wonderful college coaches during the recruiting journey and saw some amazing college campuses that would not have happened if I had recruited early.

There were no regrets here in waiting to my junior year to commit, although some schools did warn me they were getting short of funds for my graduation class this past summer.

And it did seem that many of the pitchers from the class of 2017 had already committed even though a lot of schools were still looking.

This past summer, though, the offers I received just blew up.

I was out there being seen at the national tournaments with a well-respected travel ball program, Coach Dave Lotti’s Rhode Island Thunder 18U Gold team.

I did a tremendous amount of traveling to visit colleges and we played in the major 18U tournaments including the Team NJ Classic, the Boulder Independence Day Tournament, the DeMarini Invitational Showcase and the PGF Nationals.

Our team placed 3rd at the Demarini Invitational and 9th at Bolder IDT; I cannot say enough outstanding things about the Rhode Island Thunder coaches and my teammates—they have truly been an inspiration.

At the Pennsbury Invitational, I pitched nine innings in three games and had a 0.00 ERA with 20 strikeouts and one hit allowed.

At the Team New Jersey tournament, I pitched a four-inning win against the Corona Angels-Tyson and a three-inning win against the California Cruisers with five strikeouts.

At the IDT, I again was fortunate to win against the Corona Angels and also against the Michigan Finesse and finished the summer with at PGF beating Florida Power Black striking out six in a four-inning shutout against Florida Power Black.

Those games helped me get more recruiting attention and entering my junior year with a lot of great memories and over 25 D-1 offers—including Pitt, OSU, Penn, UConn, Hofstra, Eastern Carolina and Illinois—I decided to verbally commit to play in the SEC with the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.

After taking a visit to the campus and having quality time with the new coaches, I knew it was the right time and the right fit for me.

I just loved Coach Deifel, Oliverira (Boo) and McRae, the athletic facilities at Arkansas are some of the best in the nation and I feel I can make an impact on their program!