In the day and age where college athletics feels less and less like student-athletes, it is always refreshing to find an elite baseball player who reminds you of the student portion. Vedant Sharma is one of the best pitchers in the state of Colorado and has legitimate MLB Draft interest from several teams, but his “backup” plan is heading to Boston in the Fall where he will attend Harvard. He does have a GPA of 4.60, scored 1580 on the SAT, and intends to major in economics/finance after all. 

The recruiting process was very focused for him, “it was Stanford or Ivy League for me.” He had offers from North Carolina and Duke, but ultimately the decision was pretty easy to choose Harvard. “Those are the type of people I want to be around. Most everyone there is gonna do big things…they are all smart people, the athletes especially are cool. I enjoy being around intelligent people. And also, I will have a good chance to get significant innings off the bat.”

With a fastball that has been up to 95 MPH and a sharp curveball, he has the ability to simply overpower hitters, but his main focus is consistency and he feels his best pitch is his changeup. He points to his massive growth spurt in high school as something that has contributed to the inconsistency. “I was 5’8 or 5’9 and skinny, now I am 6’2” or 6’3” and 210-215…I haven’t always been big, but now I am.” One thing that is rather common for players who do grow 6+ inches in a shorter period of time is some lack of command of the body, as there is so much more to control. This often takes a few years to harness, but once players do, they make massive strides forward. This also points to more velocity to come, he has already added 20 MPH to his fastball in high school, and one can expect a big improvement in command and consistency.

In February he got to throw in front of the largest selection of MLB scouts he has seen at the Prep Baseball Super 60. “I knew there would be a lot of MLB scouts there but I didn’t think they were gonna be THAT many.” The event is certainly unique as it might be the most heavily scouted showcase workout each year, and the setup is non-traditional for such events. Sharma toed the rubber in the middle of an indoor soccer field with scouts surrounding him on the field and many more participants, family members, and general public looking on from a track that circles the field on the second floor. While he did not put up his best velocity numbers at the event, he was feeling a bit under the weather but refused to use that as an excuse, the bullpen overall was good and he feels he made a good impression. 

He is confident in the chances Fossil Ridge has this year, and he has both personal and team goals for this season. He wants to win a state title, and he wants to strike out 101 batters. Why 101? Easton Miller, now at Air Force, set the school record last year with 100 and Sharma wants to break that record this year. 

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