One of the most dominant performances at the PGF 16U Nationals this week has been by Alexis Holloway, the 2017 standout on the Beverly Bandits Premier team who has committed to Notre Dame.

Holloway has been lights out in the circle and has led the Bandits to one of the final four spots in the winner’s bracket.

On Wednesday, she threw 11 2/3 innings and allowed only two hits, both coming against the Birmingham Bolts as she no-hit Jersey Intensity earlier in the day.

Check out these stats: through four games she’s 4-0, has pitched 25 2/3 innings and has allowed only six hits while striking out 37 and walking just two batters.

And she’s also hitting .429 (3-for-7) with a triple and three RBI.

But it’s her pitching that has her headed to Notre Dame, which is only about an hour from her home. Alexis committed just a week into her freshman year last fall and says Notre Dame is her “dream school.”

“I’ve been going to their camps since I was eight,” she remembers. “I always wanted to go there and kept going back to the camps. Eventually, they started coming to my games to watch me.”

“Last August 31,” she continues, “I went on an unofficial trip the weekend of the Temple football game and my entire family went with me. I was pretty sure they’d offer but not totally sure! The coaches called me in that morning and offered and I committed immediately.”

Though she’s still years away from South Bend, the talented pitcher with a 4.0+ GPA says she’s excited to play for the Irish someday, but sees softball as an end to a means

“College sports are great to get you to college,” Alexis, who is thinking she’ll study engineering, believes, “and to get you a degree because the education is the most important thing.”

Still she knows her skill to get her that scholarship is her ability to confound hitters and when I ask her what pitches she throws Alexis plays it coy.

“That’s classified information,” she laughs, but freely admits she’s not a heat-throwing Jennie Finch type.

“Oh no, I don’t throw that hard,” Alexis admits. “ I basically have three pitches: a drop, a change and a rise. Some days one is working better than the other and when you start throwing you find out which one is giving the batters problems.”

The Indiana teenage plays at Crown Point High which has another high profile pitcher in Miranda Elish, an incoming junior who was the Gatorade State Player of the Year this spring after compiling a 23-0 record and a 0.22 ERA with 223 K’s against only 17 walks.

Naturally the freshman Holloway saw little action but when she did she impressive, winning four games and striking out 99 in only 47 1/3 innings while limiting opponents to a .101 batting average.

Miranda and Alexis have another strong tie too—last year Elish led the Bandits Premier 16U team to a PGF National Championship, the very one that Holloway leads now. Elish is up with the 18U team this summer and will be playing in next week’s PGF Nationals so, in effect, she’s handed the ball to Alexis to try to win a second straight title for the 16U squad.

“This year’s team wants to live up to what Miranda and the team last year did,” Alexis explains. “but it’s a different team now and we feel it’s now our time to shine. One thing Miranda and I both have in common is we get along great with J.T. (Coach Jenn Tyrell) and I think that’s been a big part of why we’ve done well.”

Another reason Alexis could have developed so much at an early age is she has a softball field to practice on… in her yard.

It’s the Crown Point version of Iowa’s “Field of Dreams.”

Her parents graciously allowed for an infield to be built right outside the family’s home and, as Alexis puts it, “you pull one to left field, you’re going to break my bedroom window.”

Actually, she admits, it’s just an infield because “my mom won’t let us take out the tree that would be in center field.”