Top Universities Mining North County Pitching Talent

A trio of North County pitchers will be taking their baseball talents to three impressive Division I programs.

Thomas Eshelman of will attend and play for perennial baseball powerhouse Cal State Fullerton, while teammates Evan Schreiber and Jake Schulz will enroll at Northwestern and Cal Berkeley respectively.

The three made their intentions known in front of friends and family members Wednesday morning, along with scores of other county athletes, at a signing-day press conference at the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park.

Eshelman, Schreiber and Schulz have the luxury of knowing where their futures lie as they approach their senior seasons in the spring. Or do they?

"All the suspense isn't over yet because the draft is coming up," said Eshelman, referring to next June's amatuer draft. If any of the three are high picks, college ball may take a back seat to a professional contract.

Another talented trio, basketball players Sam Beeler of Poway High, David Travers of LCC and Dayton Boddie of El Camino, also will join Division I programs.

Beeler, a 6-foot-10 center, is heading to UC Santa Barbara, Boddie will take his swingman skills to UC Riverside, and Travers, a guard, moves cross country to Georgia State. La Costa Canyon's Matt Shrigley had already announced that he'll play his college basketball at San Diego State.

Wednesday was the first day of the early signing period for prep athletes in boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls swimming, wrestling and golf.

Here are some of the student-athletes from area schools covered by local Patch sites who announced their college choices:

BASEBALL

Danny Martin (La Costa Canyon); Azusa Pacific

Evan Schreiber (La Costa Canyon); Northwestern

Sammy Ayala (La Jolla Country Day); UC Santa Barbara

Kevin Newman (Poway); Arizona

Thomas Eschelman (Carlsbad); Cal State Fullerton

Jake Schulz (La Costa Canyon); Cal

SOFTBALL

Emily Schneider (Carlsbad); UC San Diego

Jessica Bever (Del Norte); Saint Mary's

Megan Vincent (Del Norte); Chadron State

Dani Cowan (Carlsbad); Buffalo

Victoria Nirschl (Carlsbad); Pittsburgh

Kathryn Duran (Poway); Pittsburgh

Ashley Ercolano (Poway); UC Riverside

BOYS BASKETBALL

Sam Beeler (Poway); UC Santa Barbara

Matt Shrigley (La Costa Canyon); San Diego State

David Travers (La Costa Canyon); Georia State

Dayton Boddie (El Camino) ; UC Riverside

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Bryn Stark (Bishop's); San Francisco

WRESTLING

Connor King (Poway);Cal Poly

GIRLS LACROSSE

Natalie Simpson (Carlsbad);Oregon

Hannah Sieger (Rancho Bernardo);Virginia Tech

BOYS SWIMMING

Jameson Lyon (La Costa Canyon); Cal

Mickey Mackle (La Costa Canyon); Cal Poly

GIRLS SWIMMING

Kendyl Stewart (La Costa Canyon); USC

GYMNASTICS

Michelle Yasukochi (Carlsbad); Utah State

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Sophia Blaszyk (Poway); Hawaii Pacific

Natalie Bausback (La Costa Canyon); Virginia

Karlee Fuller (La Costa Canyon); Yale

Lisa Kramer (La Costa Canyon); USD