Pine Creek’s Riley Cornelio (6) will play baseball for TCU. (Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com)
Pine Creek soon to be sophomore Riley Cornelio got the attention of baseball programs early and pulled the trigger on committing like he was rolling a double play.
Cornelio announced on Twitter Sunday morning that he will be playing baseball for TCU after he graduates from Pine Creek in 2019.
In 20 games for the Eagles this year, Cornelio batted .300 with a home run and 13 RBIs.
Pine Creek was the No. 1 team based on the Class 5A RPI, but fell to Rocky Mountain in their district championship game.
Ralston Valley is sending one of its best to the Arizona desert.
Right-handed pitcher Drake Davis informed CHSAANow.com via email that he received an offer to play baseball at Arizona State and has indeed committed to the Sun Devils.
Davis was a hot commodity for top-level programs as he had also received offers from Arizona, USC, Gonzaga, Pepperdine and Longwood.
“I just feelt like (Arizona State) is the right place for me,” Davis said. “I can become a better player and a better individual there.”
Davis stands at 6-foot-1 and helped the Mustangs through the district rounds and into the 2016 Class 5A state baseball playoffs.
Ralston Valley fell to Rocky Mountain in a de facto quarterfinal game.
In 33 innings pitched for the Mustangs last year, Davis struck out 44 hitters and opposing hitters only mustered a .201 average against him.
His commitment has been updated in the CHSAANow recruiting database for the class of 2017.
Casey Opitz is continuing his family’s baseball legacy. Tuesday night, he became the third Opitz brother to commit to a Division I baseball program.
Opitz will head to the SEC, where he will play for the University of Arkansas. The commitment was announced on the Heritage athletics Twitter account.
In the 2015-16, Opitz batted .424 in 21 games he played for the Eagles. Heritage came into the 2016 postseason with the fourth-best RPI in Class 5A, but lost their district championship game to eventual state champion Cherokee Trail.
Opitz’s two older brothers, Shane and Jake, both committed to play baseball at the University of Nebraska. They were also both selected in the MLB draft after their senior seasons at Heritage. Shane went on to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays straight out of high school while Jake played for the Cornhuskers before once again entering the draft and being taken by the Chicago Cubs.
Shane still plays in the Blue Jays organization.
Opitz’s commitment to Arkansas has been updated in the recruiting database for the class of 2017.
He is the third in-state player to join the Buffs’ 2017 recruiting class. Cherry Creek’s Jonathan Van Diest and Dante Sparaco both announced their intentions to play at CU in the winter.
Paige received his offer from the Buffs on Thursday and wasted little time in accepting it. He has spent the offseason training for former CU standout Matt McChesney.
The Grizzlies advanced to the Class 5A quarterfinals in 2015 before falling to Cherry Creek 41-7.
Paige’s commitment has been added to the CHSAANow.com recruiting database for the class of 2017.
As a junior for Regis, Sloan went 2-0 with a 3.73 ERA in six apperances. He threw 20 2/3 innings, and struck out 24 batters against 15 walks.
Sloan, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, is the 12th Regis Jesuit baseball player to make a Division I baseball commitment since the 2014 class. He is the first Raiders player from 2017 to do so.
He is also a member of Regis Jesuit’s football team, and had a team-high 10 sacks to go along with 36 tackles last season.
Blessed and proud to announce that I have verbally committed to play Basketball at The University of Wyoming #gowyopic.twitter.com/LHmQy5asf4
— Hunter Maldonado (@therealhunter24) June 7, 2016
Maldonado, a 6-foot-6 forward, led Vista Ridge in scoring as a junior with 22.6 points per game — which ranked fourth in all of Class 4A — and also topped the team with 6.9 rebounds per game. He had three double-doubles, two of which came as the Wolves made a run to the 4A Final 4.
Maldonado scored 29 points and had 11 rebounds in an upset of No. 1 seed Lewis-Palmer in the Great 8, then dropped 37 points (to go along with 12 rebounds) in a Final 4 loss to eventual champion Pueblo West.
“Hunter is a great kid that is going to have an immediate impact on the Wyoming program,” Vista Ridge athletic director Sam Baldwin told CHSAANow.com via text message. “You couldn’t ask for a better teammate or student-athlete. Wyoming got a gem of a young man.”
As a sophomore, Maldonado averaged 18.0 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
Maldonado is the first boys basketball player in Colorado’s 2017 class to announce his college decision. He continues a recent trend of Colorado players heading to Wyoming’s basketball program.
The Cowboys will have four players from Colorado on their 2017-16 team, which includes 2016 ThunderRidge grad Austin Mueller.
Dalton Keene announced that he has committed to Virginia Tech’s football program on Monday.
Keene, a junior, said on Twitter that he he “proud to announce my commitment to Virginia Tech! I wanted to thank everyone who has helped me get this far, but we’re not done yet!”
Jonathan Van Diest (95) is now a CU commit. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
The CU Buffs had themselves a nice little Sunday.
First, defensive end/outside linebacker Jonathan Van Diest announced on Twitter that he would be joining the Buffs. Rivals.com has Van Diest listed as a three-star prospect who also received offers from Colorado State, Iowa State, Louisville and Nebraska.
About an hour later, Van Diest’s fellow Bruin announced that he, too, would be joining the roster at CU. Dante Sparaco tweeted out his own announcement on the heels of the news of Van Diest committing to the Buffs.
Sparaco also fielded offers from the other two high-profile programs in the state in Air Force and Colorado State.
