Port Of Los Angeles High softball continues their good fortunes of breeding players bound for college with yet another verbal commit for the upcoming 2015 season.

Following on the heels of senior pitcher Nicolle Miranda signing her letter of intent to play at Eastern Michigan University, Miranda's battery partner, senior catcher Savana Ramirez has made a verbal commit to play at Indiana Tech. The great part about this verbal commit is, Ramirez and Miranda will only be two hours away, so they won't miss each other that much when they both move on to the next level.

This is just the latest achievement to a program that has already produced the likes of Allison Bayer (Carroll College in Montana), Kelsea Short (Eastern Arizona), Brandi Sutcliffe (Briar Cliff/Harbor College), Sarah Maldonado (Long Beach City) and Brianna Grayson (Dickinson State in North Dakota) in their short five-year history of top notch talents.

What hooked Ramirez to Indiana Tech more than the other schools she was being looked at, was similarity with her two coaches, Melissa Bugarin-Espinoza at POLA, and her future college coach, Jessica Harris.

"The main thing that caught my attention was that Coach Harris reminded me so much of Coach Melissa so I knew that I was going to be taken care of," said Ramirez, who helped POLA win the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division III title as a sophomore and the Division I semifinals as a junior. "The campus is beautiful and the people are so nice over there."

Ramirez, an All CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division I honorable mention choice this past season, has been one of POLA's most effective contributors since coming over for her sophomore year by way of transferring from West Torrance High, where she played her freshman year of high school. 

"Savana is an awesome teammate, player to coach, and great student-athlete," Bugarin-Espinoza said. "She will be a tremendous asset to Indiana Tech University."

Ramirez hit a solid .402 with two home runs, 20 RBIs, 35 hits and 4 doubles last season, and was rock solid defensively being error free, catching seven runners stealing in 18 attempts (.389 caught stealing percentage), even turning a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play with Miranda against Edison of Huntington Beach on March 12. 

"I am so happy and proud of her," Miranda says of Ramirez. "When I found out we were only going to be two hours apart, we both said we would meet each other half way, and have our own pitching/catching practice."

Ramirez was also looked at by Holy Names (Oakland, California), Cedar Crest (Allentown, Pennsylvania), Saint Katherine (Encinitas, California) and Arizona Christian University.

(Note: Photo courtesy of Valerie Ramirez)