Dos Palos, Chowchilla softball stars make their college choices official.

Dos Palos senior Janessa Jasso has been waiting for this day for a long time. The Broncos ace finally got to break out a pen and sign her named on her national letter of intent to accept a softball scholarship to Iowa State University.

Jasso verbally committed to Cyclones after her freshman year.

“It feels good,” Jasso said. “I’ve been waiting three years to sign this piece of paper. All the hard work is paying off. I get to play the sport I love at the highest level.”

From a little town like Dos Palos to the big state of the Big 12. Jasso knows not many people from her town get the opportunity to play Division I athletics.

“Signing D1 is not normal here,” Jasso said. “I think I’m one of the only signees here this year. Being from a small town, I love the support I get from my town. I love that the entire town has my back.”

Last spring, Jasso finished with a 25-3 record and a 0.70 ERA. Her 25 wins ranked sixth in the state. Her 299 strikeouts ranked fourth in the state.

During her three-year career so far for the Broncos, Jasso is 62-8 with a 0.73 ERA. She has struck out 780 hitters in 467 innings.

Jasso says visiting the Iowa State campus in Ames, Iowa felt like home.

“The campus was amazing,” she said. “There has been a coaching change but l love the new coaches so much. The campus reminded me of my home, except everything was green.”

Iowa State softball coach Jamie Pinkerton liked what he saw in Jasso.

“What we saw is a player with softball savvy,” Pinkerton said. “She’s aware of body movement and mechanics. She does a pretty good job of doing what she wants with the softball as far as changing speeds and hitting her spots.”

Jasso had already committed to Iowa State when Pinkerton came on as head coach in August of 2017. Pinkerton said there was a period of time where the new coaches had to figure out if they wanted to honor the scholarship offer to Jasso, but at the same time had to impress Jasso enough that she still wanted to come to Iowa State.

“She’s not a lot different from normal high school kids,” Pinkerton said. “She likes her social media. I’m from a different generation. What really sold her to me was when you talk to her on the phone she’s able to communicate. She can carry on a conversation. For some kids texting is carrying on a conversation.

“Talking to her, she seems like a high-character, high-integrity person. The fact that she comes from a small community, I think she’ll fit right in here at Ames. If you take away the university, the town isn’t very big.”

Jasso was one of two area players to sign their letter of intent on Wednesday. Chowchilla’s Jana Pope signed to play softball at Nevada-Reno.

Pope split the pitching duties with teammate Kelsey Volkmar for the Tribe last season. Pope finished with a 6-4 record and a 1.12 ERA. The left-hander struck out 122 batters in just over 74 innings pitched.

Pope has compiled a 29-12 career record at Chowchilla with 404 strikeouts in just under 277 innings.

Jasso is looking forward to pitching in front of the big crowds in the Big 12.

“I like big crowds,” Jasso said. “I pitched in the (Premiere Girls Fastpitch). We won the championship once and finished second once. I love the rush that you get being in front of a big crowd.”

Dos Palos High School will be hosting a signing ceremony for Jasso on Thursday in the career center on campus at 4 p.m.

This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 12:29 PM.