Today we spotlight a Texas player originally from California who will play in the Northwest in a few years… also of interest: she was the first known verbal in the 2018 class!

Name: ALYSSA PINTO
High School: Brandeis High
City: San Antonio
State: Texas
Grad Year: 2018
Club: Beverly Bandits
Position(s): OF/1B
GPA: 3.7 GPA (with pre-AP classes)

Club Stats: 2014 fall—batted over .500 last fall with the Bandits
Honors: Softball Factory Elite Camp (2014), invited to the OnDeck National Elite Camp and the NorCal Jamboree in 2013. “Derek and Joann Allister were instrumental with Alyssa’s softball recruiting,” says the athlete’s father, Gabe. “It was hard for them at first to give her a shot because she was just finishing the sixth grade, but she impressed and they took a chance on her and it paid off.”

Camps: 2013 – Univ. of Washington Elite Camp, Zoom to June invite, Advanced Fastpitch Camp, Cal Softball Camp, Fresno State Elite Camp

College Recruiting: committed to Washington, Alyssa was the first in the 2018 class to verbal. She was also being recruited at the time by Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Fresno State and Missouri.

Why Washington? The Huskies have been Alyssa’s favorite schools she was nine years old and living in Washington—it was then the young athlete got to watch All-American pitcher Danielle Lawrie lead Washington to the NCAA championship in 2009. After visiting the Seattle school and attending a Husky softball camp, she committed.

Interesting Fact: Originally from Lodi, Calif., Alyssa is an “Army brat” according to her father Gabe and is on the Beverly Bandits Premier team, coached by Bill Conroy and featuring three of the top pitchers in the nation: Taran Alvelo (2015, Washington), Miranda Elish (2016, Oregon) and Alexis Holloway (2017, Notre Dame). Here’s a link to the Aug. 2014 story we did on Alyssa’s moving to the Bandits.

“She had had to move schools and teams every couple of years,” explains her father, “and has been able to adapt very well. Alyssa started playing travel ball in California and began the recruiting process there. We then got orders to move to Texas and had to leave everything and start all over again. She played in Texas for a season and began playing with the Beverly Bandits this last fall. Alyssa has been blessed in softball and that has led her to be able to play for some of the top coaches and travel teams in the country.”

Scouting Report: Alyssa’s speed, ability to track and her strong arm have made her an elite player defensively and offensively her ability to lay down the bunt, hit for average and ability to hit it over the defense has made her dangerous at the plate.