Latest Recruit Takes Unusual Route to CSUN : College baseball: Montana pitcher signs with Matadors despite never having played a high school game.

Jason Shanahan was named to Montana’s high school all-state team in basketball and was a standout in football. Which is one reason why Cal State Northridge signed him to a scholarship in baseball.

A multitalented 6-foot-1, 195-pound right-handed pitcher, Shanahan became the first out-of-state player secured by Matador baseball Coach Bill Kernen when he signed a letter of intent late Wednesday.

The deadline for signing NCAA letters of intent was midnight Thursday.

Shanahan comes to Northridge out of Sentinel High in Missoula, Mont., a school that doesn’t field a baseball team.

It was Shanahan’s play as a pitcher, third baseman and first baseman in American Legion competition that earned him a spot on the gold medal-winning West squad in last month’s U.S. Olympic Festival. Kernen scouted Shanahan in action at USC’s Dedeaux Field two weeks ago.

“It was a topic of conversation in coaching circles that there was a versatile guy who might want to come out to play in California,” Kernen said. “So I decided I should get out there and take a look at him.”

In the only game Kernen saw, Shanahan struck out three in two scoreless innings of work against the East, requiring only 20 pitches, 16 of which were strikes.

“He has a good arm and is definitely a Division I-quality guy,” Kernen said. “What stuck out was that he was a multiple-sport guy who was not only versatile in the sports he played, but also in the positions he played.

“He is a switch-hitter who can play the two corner infield positions and also pitch. That’s about as versatile as you can be.”

Although Montana and Alaska are the only states in which organized high school baseball is not played, Shanahan is of proven quality. He was a late-round draft choice of the St. Louis Cardinals in June’s amateur draft and is the top player on the top-ranked American Legion team in Montana. “It sounds funny to people from California, but in Montana, American Legion is all we’ve got so it’s what we aim for,” Shanahan said.

Shanahan chose Northridge after visiting Cal State Fullerton, Washington State and Nevada Reno.

“I knew about Northridge just from looking at the polls last season,” Shanahan said by telephone from his home in Montana. “That’s really all I knew about the program.”

Aside from the game Kernen saw, Shanahan made one other Olympic Festival pitching appearance, allowing an earned run and striking out two in two innings. He also platooned at first base and had three hits in eight at-bats--all left-handed.

“The main thing I hoped to accomplish in the Olympic Festival was prove I could play against the competition because of coming from Montana,” Shanahan said. “Hitting the ball hard was an especially big confidence boost because I’m a natural right-handed hitter and have only been switching-hitting two years.”

Northridge’s baseball recruiting class stands at 11 players with the addition of Darrin Lond, a shortstop from College of the Desert. Lond batted .350 last season as a sophomore.