Alexa Manning is a 2027 right-handed pitcher and outfielder from Southern California who plays for the SoCal Sting 18U TGO travel team (the “TGO” stands for “Thomas/Grimm/Ota”) and is a senior at Aliso Niguel High in Aliso Viejo, Calif.

As a junior earlier this year, she was 1^st Team All-League and helped her Wolverines team win the league championship as she batted .396.

At the club level, Alexa helped her Sting 16U Black team win the West Coast Elite Fall Showcase last year as she hit a sizzling .765 with an OPS of 1.660.

This year at the club level, the rising senior hit .373 with 49 runs scored and was equally successful in the circle, producing a 2.32 ERA and a .219 batting average against.

Right there in importance, too, is her academic accomplishments of maintaining a 4.6 GPA and being a three-time Scholar Athlete.

That impressive all-around academic and athletic package resulted in Alexa being admitted to the admissions process of one of the nation’s most prestigious academic universities: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or “MIT,”

The MIT is globally recognized as being “one of the most prestigious and selective universities in the world. In fact, it often ranks higher than Ivy League schools, especially in engineering, computer science, and physics.”

In this first-person account of her recruiting journey, Alexa — who wants to to study Bioengineering at MIT — shares important lessons that are relevant also to the 2028’s who, in a little more than a week, can begin being contacted by college coaches as well as future recruits who can remember her story for inspiration!

In what ways?

For one, it’s not how you start in the recruiting process, it’s how you finish!

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I was a player that received zero calls or e-mails September 1st of my junior year…. But, with that being said, I never stopped trying to gain interest from the schools I loved.

I filled out MIT’s recruiting questionnaire in December of my junior year (2025) although I didn’t expect the coaches to reach out, because I hadn’t sent them an email yet.

To my surprise, they emailed me about a phone call, where we mainly discussed the academic side of the recruiting process.

I had taken the SAT already the summer before my junior year and was enrolled in the highest math class in my school at the time, so I seemed promising academically to the coaching staff.

I went to their camp in February, which I believe was the most beneficial part of the recruiting process for both me and the coaches.

During the camp I received a tour from a few of the players and saw the main part of the campus, which I fell in love with.

I also got to see parts of the school that made it unique and realized how many different student-led clubs they had to offer.

I also pitched extremely well at the camp, and the coaches complemented me on my composure and my spin.

My pitching coach told me that the coaches loved that I could pitch and hit.

About a month after the camp, I took the SAT again, where I was able to meet the minimum SAT requirements that the coaches gave me.

On top of that, I worked hard to get A’s in all of my classes, but most importantly my STEM classes, which gave the coaches more confidence that I would be a competitive applicant.

Around April, this past spring of my junior year, I was offered by Head Coach Madison Trotman; however, I told her I wanted to wait for AP exams to be over before I committed.

Honestly, though, I was lacking a little bit of confidence due to the high academic standards of the school! I was able to see the assistant coaches again at Zoom Into June and the Headfirst Showcase, where we discussed more about the application process.

After that discussion and a phone call with the head coach, I was offered a second time, and I decided to commit!

The recruiting process is far from over because I still need to submit my application and get accepted, but I’m confident that this school and the softball program is the perfect fit for me.

There is so much pressure to commit as soon as possible, but I believe that a player should only commit when they are absolutely confident that the school is right for them.

— Alexa Manning/Line Drive Media Contributor