Baseball: Top players set to sign with UCLA
Months, if not years, of recruiting is about to pay off next Wednesday for UCLA baseball Coach John Savage and his staff when players can sign letters of intent.
The Bruins are expected to come away with one of the best recruiting hauls in the nation.
As usual, pitchers are front and center in UCLA’s focus. Set to sign are Jacob Nix from Los Alamitos, Grant Hockin from Damien, Griffin Canning from Santa Margarita, Nathan Hadley from Loyola, Matt Trask from Davis and Brady Aiken from San Diego Cathedral Catholic.
Nix and Aiken were members of the gold-medal winning USA 18U summer team that triumphed in Taiwan.
Another focus has been infielders, led by Josh Morgan of Orange Lutheran, Sean Bouchard of Cathedral Catholic and Nick Valaika of Newhall Hart. Valaika is the younger brother of former UCLA shortstop Patrick Valaika, a member of last season’s NCAA championship team.
Pitcher Garrett Barker from Laguna Hills and shortstop Zander Clarke from Newbury Park are also expected to end up in the recruiting class.
Of course, a key will be how many of the players end up enrolling at UCLA after the 2014 amateur draft.
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