SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State softball team has signed four student-athletes to National Letters of Intent and added another via Grant-in-Aid, head coach Kathy Van Wyk announced today. The five signees - Makena Brocki, Jazmine Castaneda, Jeweliana Perez, Alyssa Pinto and Elianna Reyes - join a program that has won a Mountain West-best seven regular-season championships in the 20-year history of the league.
Makena Brocki comes to the Aztecs after earning four letters at Chino Hills High School. Brocki, who has helped the Huskies to back-to-back league championships in 2018-19, is a three-time first-team all-league performer. According to MaxPreps, Brocki is batting .382 (100-for-262) with 43 RBIs, 77 runs, 15 doubles, three triples and two home runs, while posting a .424 on-base percentage and a .484 slugging percentage. A scholar-athlete, Brocki also played soccer for four years at CHHS. Brocki, who plays her club ball with the OC Batbusters, comes from a talent-rich family as her mother, Rhonda Wheatley, was an All-American softball player at Cal Poly Pomona, her father, Mike Brocki, played baseball at Cal State Dominguez Hills and was in the Seattle Mariners organization, and sister, Courtney Gano, was an all-Pac-12 Conference performer at Washington and eventually played for Team USA.
Jazmine Castaneda, a Fresno, Calif., native, comes to The Mesa after playing the last four years at Bullard High School. At BHS, Castaneda has been the CMAC Pitcher of the Year, a first-team all-CMAC selection, recipient of a silver slugger award and rookie of the year for the 2016-17 campaign. Castaneda, who owns BHS pitching records in ERA, wins, strikeouts and innings pitched, and hitting records in home runs (season and career) and doubles (career), has helped the Knights to three straight league titles (2017-19), a 28-2 league record over that span and an overall mark of 62-22. A scholar-athlete, Castaneda plays her club ball for Firecracker Brashear.
Jewels Perez, meanwhile, has earned four letters at Merced High School in Merced, Calif. According to MaxPreps, Perez is hitting .489 (111-for-227) over her career so far with 53 RBIs, 77 runs, 27 doubles, 11 triples and six home runs, while slugging .784 with a .525 on-base percentage. Perez has been named a first-team all-CCC selection and first-team all-CCC academic team pick each of the last three years (2017-19), while twice earning Merced Sun all-area honors (2018-19) and being named to the Cal-Hi all-state team in 2018. A scholar-athlete, Perez plays club ball for Universal Fastpitch, where she helped the team to a fifth-place finish at the prestigious Premier Girls Fastpitch tournament in 2019, and a pair of 10th-place showings in 2017 and 2018.
Alyssa Pinto comes to San Diego State after originally signing an NLI at Oregon and playing her fall ball there in 2018. An outfielder, Pinto then transferred to Ole Miss, where she was 1-for-3 last year in four games before having her season cut short due to injury. Pinto, who moved numerous times because of her father's military career, won back-to-back state titles at Cherokee Trails High School in Aurora, Colo., and Incarnate Word High School in San Antonio before finishing her high school career at Lodi High School in Lodi, Calif. An All-American and all-state athlete in high school, Pinto also played on several club teams, including the Beverly Bandits, Texas Bombers, Firecrackers Rico (2016 PGF national champions) and California Cruisers (2017 PGF third place). She is expected to play at Cosumnes River College in the spring and will have three years remaining when she joins the Aztecs.
The final signee of the 2020 class is Elianna Reyes, who has spent the last year at Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles. An outfielder, Reyes helped the Eagles to a Northern League title in 2019, batting .491 (27-for-55) with 12 home runs, 27 RBIs, 15 stolen bases, a. 508 on-base percentage and a 1.218 slugging percentage en route to being named the Northern League's Offensive Player of the Year, an all-league pick and a second-team CIF D1 all-city honoree. Prior to attending ERHS, Reyes spent two years at Alhambra High School, batting .492 (65-for-132) with 10 home runs, 40 RBIs, 56 runs, nine doubles and five triples. For her three-year career so far, Reyes is hitting .492 with 22 home runs and 67 RBIs. Reyes, who also runs cross country, plays her club ball for Firecrackers TJ, the 10th-ranked team in the nation, 2017 Triple Crown USA national champions and 2015 third-place finisher at the PGF Nationals.
San Diego State, which welcomes the fourth-best transfer recruiting class in the country, according to Softball America, begins its 2020 season at Jacksonville's River City Leadoff Tournament from Feb. 6-8 in Jacksonville, Fla. The Aztecs open with host Jacksonville on Thursday, and play doubleheaders against Villanova and Nicholls on both Friday and Saturday.