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Breaking Recruiting News: LSU Gets Verbals from Top 5 Catcher Karmen Vazquez and Top 5 Pitcher Ayla Tuua (Sept. 22, 2024)

By Brentt Eads

September 22, 2024

Catcher Karmen Vazque (left) and Ayla Tuua committed to LSU on their official visit to the SEC school this weekend.

Breaking Recruiting News: LSU Gets Verbals from Top 5 Catcher Karmen Vazquez and Top 5 Pitcher Ayla Tuua (Sept. 22, 2024)

Huge recruiting news out of LSU tonight as Line Drive Softball has confirmed that  Head Coach Beth Torina and staff pulled off a huge coup in getting verbals from their expected battery of the future.

Pitcher Ayla Tuua, who plays for BSC Bengals – Briggs, and catcher Karmen Vazquez, who competes for the California-based Dirtdogs coached by her father, Marco Vazquez, left Baton Rouge tonight after concluding their official visit and both finalized that they committed to Louisiana State University before heading home.

“It just felt like home,” Vazquez told Line Drive Softball’s Brentt Eads. “Everything was wonderful, the school, the campus, the coaches and Ayla and I really clicked.”

On Friday, the Top 10 of the 2026 Line Drive HOT 100 rankings was released and Vazquez was tied for No. 3 overall and Tuua at No. 4.

There were unconfirmed reports that another pitcher committed also.

Here’s the bios that were published Friday as part of the Top 10 in the Line Drive HOT 100:

Ayla Tuua

T-4—Ayla Tuua, P/OF, BSC Bengals – Briggs
Ayla is a tremendous athlete all-around as she has tipped the radar gun at 72 mph and has hit 300-foot bombs over the fence as a 5-foot-10 power player who, as one coach colorfully described her game as “smashing balls and stealing bases.” She has dropballs and riseballs that are hard to lay off of and at one prospect camp a year ago she hit 72.9 on the Rapsodo speed gun. Her heat and movement pitches are made all that much harder to hit when you mix in a change-up that makes hitters look silly. In the batter’s box, Ayla crushes the ball and it explodes off the bat. Although she is a .500-plus hitter with double digit home run capability, it will be hard for college coaches to not just force her to pitch because she’s that good. This weekend she’s visiting LSU and has already tripped to Oklahoma and Texas with many more hoping to get her on campus as well.

Karmen Vazquez

T-3—Karmen Vazquez, C/3B, Dirtdogs – Vazquez
One of the top catcher/third base prospect in the nation, Karmen dominates on both sides of the ball. She showed off her arm in this year’s PGF All-American Game and has been clocked with a ridiculous 1.6 second poop time. With the bat, she can drive the ball in all directions. She was 1st Team All-State as a sophomore at Hanford (Calif.) West High when she batted .486 with nine home runs and also was All-Section in the CIF Central Section. Her club head coach and father, Marco Vazquez, explains: “Having Karmen on the field is like having a coach on the field because she make adjustments on the fly because of her high softball IQ.” Karmen is also an exceptional water polo and fun character that her father jokes: “She is called ‘Krazy K’ for a reason!” The talented 2026 has her list down to Texas A&M, North Carolina State, LSU and UCLA and she will announce the commitment on October 5th.

Of course, things can change instantaneously in the recruiting world and the last line of the backstop’s bio indicating a commitment in early October was pushed up to tonight (Sept. 22).

Here is the full quote from Vazquez on what made LSU her final choice:

We’ll have more updates on both standout 2026’s soon as well as other breaking recruiting news. To send info, email: brentt.eads@linedrivemedia.com.

Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

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