Committing to a university to play softball is always exciting but when you do so on the same day that your good friend and teammate does, well, that just makes it extra special.

Two talented juniors in the Washington Ladyhawk organization—pitcher Shelby Jeffries and third baseman/shortstop Alyssa “Mack” McKiernan—both decided to accept offers to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. together, but separately you might say, as their verbals came three hours apart.

They were travelling back from PGF Nationals, where they led the Ladyhawks-Nelon team to a 13^th place finish in the 16U Premier standings, but committing together wasn’t the original plan.

In fact, finalizing the decision wasn’t even in the cards originally, at least for one of the prospects.

“Going into my Cal Poly visit I was very excited, but I was not planning to commit,” begins Alyssa. “During my visit I was just taking in the campus and realizing that all of my hard work was starting to pay off.”

“We never planned on going to college together,” adds Shelby. “It just worked out that way. It’s a very special thing when two teammates and good friends can go away to college together and play softball.”

The campus visit to Cal Poly was Mack’s first unofficial trip to the school, but Shelby had already toured the campus.

“I was very interested in the Mustangs because I did a visit last winter and was given an offer shortly after, but I wanted to go again so my mom could see the campus for the first time and meet the coaches.”

“Mack was also very interested and was excited to see the campus and meet the coaches. Mack and I both have family within a couple hours of San Luis but that was not a huge factor for me. The bigger factors included a great academic California school, competitive softball in a great conference (Big West), a coaching staff that made me feel like family and the fact the beach is 15 minutes away!”

Shelby pulled the trigger and finalized her choice while on the way home from the visit, but Mack mulled it over for a few hours before deciding to commit too.

“After going home and letting it settle in that I have the opportunity to play at Cal Poly I went over it with my family and couldn’t think of a better school for me,” she explains.

“I had visited many schools and there is just something that is different and feels right about Cal Poly. Thus making my decision easy and feeling like the perfect fit combining the academics, the softball program, and a great coaching staff.”

“My dream has always been to play college softball in California, somewhere not too far from home where you can play softball outside year round. At the start of my journey to find the right school for me, I started looking at not only softball but also academics and this was one of the things that made Cal Poly such a good fit for me.”

Shelby attends Sultan (Wash.) High and this spring was a 1^st Team All-Area pitcher after winning 11 games and compiling 226 strikeouts in 124 innings. She also hit .370.

At the PGF Nationals she was equally successful going 3-1 with a 0.84 ERA and 23 K’s in 16.2 innings against top players from around the nation.

Mack goes to Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, Wash. which is about an hour away from Shelby’s school and has had a great start to her high school career hitting .523 with 25 RBI, six home runs and a .954 slugging percentage this year after batting .480 with nine homers as a freshman.

By the time the two teammates graduate from high school they will have been in the Ladyhawks’ organization for three years, although in 2014-15 they will be wearing different colors, figuratively, if not literally: Shelby will be on the Ladyhawks 18 Gold Miller Blue squad and Mack will be on the 18 Gold Miller Red team.

“Getting to play with Shelby (in college) is an added bonus,” Mack explains. “We have played together for the last year and we were not planning on going to the same school. However, when the opportunity came about that we could potentially play together in college we talked about how cool and exciting it would be.”

“I am very excited for the next six years and, getting to play with Shelby will be very fun since she is a great teammate. I love being behind her when she is in the circle, as well as her being a great friend off the field. I feel very blessed and lucky to have been given such an amazing opportunity.”