Baseball: USC is building up commitments

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USC got a commitment last month from Ryan Garvey of Palm Desert, the son of former Dodger great Steve Garvey.

Garvey batted .404 with 46 runs batted in helping Palm Desert win a Southern Section championship.

But the problem with the Trojans’ recruiting and what got former Coach Chad Kreuter in trouble is they keep getting commitments from players who might not show up on campus because they end up signing professional contracts.

Ditto with a 2012 commitment, Rio Ruiz from La Puente Bishop Amat. And USC is recruiting pitcher Henry Owens and shortstop Christian Lopes from Huntington Beach Edison, both of whom have pro baseball ambitions.

It’s great publicity for a program to get commitments from top players but it doesn’t mean anything if they don’t enroll. USC also got commitments from Mike Moustakas and Mike Stanton. Neither showed up.

-- Eric Sondheimer