It’s a big day of early signings

The first day to sign an early letter of intent for all sports but football, soccer and boys’ water polo saw athletes from across Southern California taking their pens out and enjoying the moment of officially finalizing their college choice.

Of course, in baseball, the signing might be for memento purposes only. The June draft means several of Southern California’s top players might never make it to college.

One of those is Hunter Greene of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. He signed with UCLA but is ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the nation by Perfect Game. He’s a candidate to be one of the top picks in the nation.

UCLA Coach John Savage lost the No. 1 pick in the draft this year, Mickey Moniak, but he’s going to stay involved in the Greene competition.

“We got Hunter’s commitment a couple years ago and knew he would be special,” Savage said. “We didn’t know whether it would be on the mound or at shortstop. He literally was the best two-way guy out there.”

UCLA was scheduled to sign seven pitchers for one of its best pitching classes ever. Six are from Southern California. Besides Greene, there’s Sam Glick of El Toro, Jeremiah Estrada of Palm Desert, Hagen Danner of Huntington Beach, Zach Pettway of Long Beach Wilson and Chase Farrell of Valencia. Also signing were position players Garrett Mitchell of Orange Lutheran and Kevin Kendall of La Mirada.

Royce Lewis of JSerra signed with UC Irvine and Hans Crouse of Dana Hills signed with USC. They also could be first-round draft choices. USC also picked up Nick Pratto of Huntington Beach.

In basketball, Sierra Canyon had Cody Riley sign with UCLA, Adam Seiko with San Diego State and Remy Martin with Arizona State.