BHS Baseball: Sanchez signs with Oregon

BARSTOW • The opportunity to help start something new and branch out was just too tempting for Aaron
Sanchez.

The Barstow High School senior recently announced he was abandoning his comfortable surroundings in Southern California and signing a letter of intent to pitch for the Oregon Ducks.

Sanchez will be a part of a virtually brand new program. The Ducks’ baseball team was discontinued in 1981 but reinstated in 2007. The team completed it first season back in May, going
12-22 in 2009.

“I want to be the start of something great and new,” said Sanchez, who struck out 74 batters in 45 1/3 innings last season for Barstow, on Monday.

Sanchez was attracted to the quality of coaching at Oregon. Coach George Horton led Cal State Fullerton to a national title in 2004, and pitching coach Andrew Checketts has had a knack for helping young arms into the pros.

“Coach Horton is a legend in college baseball,” Sanchez said. “He’s a great coach. Checketts, the pitching coach who I’ll be dealing with, is one of the best in college baseball.”

Checketts has helped produced 22 pitchers who were drafted or signed professional contracts. He had seven pitchers alone drafted or signed in 2007. Checketts was drafted by the Boston Red Sox and briefly played professionally in 1998 and 1999 in the minor leagues.

Despite finishing well below .500 in the program’s first year back, there are signs the Ducks won’t be a struggling expansion team for years to come. Sanchez’s class includes seven of the top 70 players from California and the recruiting classes preceding him were ranked 24th, 10th respectively by Baseball America. Sanchez is the 6th-ranked recruit from California and 23rd in the nation according to PerfectGame Crosschecker.

“I thought it was a good choice,” said Sanchez’s dad Mike Shipley, who played baseball in college and was drafted by the Angels. “It’s a new program and the coaching staff is awesome. They are the best. We did our homework on the pitching staff and of course coach Horton is a legend.

“I told Aaron from the very beginning, ‘You need to look at this school because I think they are going to do well quick.’ ”

More than a dozen programs chased Sanchez, including several within Southern California, but just one visit to the Oregon campus in August was all he needed to make up his mind. The trip to Eugene, Ore., was his first official visit out of the five that NCAA recruits are allowed. It was also his last official visit.

Playing in the Pac-10, Sanchez won’t be too far from home for too long. The Ducks are scheduled to play seven games in Southern California in 2010 and will be in Los Angeles at least once a year to play UCLA or USC.

“It’s not too far away from home, but it’s just far enough to where I have to start growing up,” Sanchez said.
His parents weren’t too worried about seeing their son go out of state. Sanchez has spent much of the last several years traveling to tournaments and showcases for baseball.

“He’s traveled a lot, so he’ll be fine,” Sanchez’s mother Lynn Shipley said. “I think (Mike’s) going to have a heart attack because his buddy will be gone.”

Signing with the Ducks doesn’t end Sanchez’s decision process, however. Sanchez is expected to be just as highly sought after in the 2009 Major League Baseball draft as he was on the recruiting trail. Some scouts believe he could be selected in the first few rounds.

“It goes through my mind every day,” said Sanchez of the allure of professional baseball. “If things are right with the draft and everything falls into place as it should, then that’s going to be something that I’m highly on the side of going to do it.”

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(760) 256-4124 or
mpeters@desertdispatch.com