Don’t like it? Get better.
Pretty simple, really.
Yes, Eli Overstreet’s “after the comma” still says “uncommitted.” However, he’s followed that mantra by putting in the work to improve, and the results have already started to show, both in measurables, baseball skills, and interactions he’s been having lately in his recruiting process.
“Every day is just work,” he told FutureStarsSeries.com. “Weight room, school, everything is going towards that. I just can’t wait for the day when I’m in the gym, signing my papers and committing to a school. But, I want to make sure it’s the right school for me, and I don’t want to rush it. It’s got to be a great fit, I have to want to go there even if I wasn’t playing baseball, so I definitely am trying to take it slow, make sure I’m doing the right thing and talking to the right people.”
Overstreet has certainly been seen by the right people. The versatile 2023 grad was most recently seen by the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series at the 2021 Underclass Combine in Lake Charles, Louisiana, reaching base twice in seven appearances at the plate while being used in a variety of different spots around the field.
He very much so earned his invitation to the event, but it wasn’t quite that actual in-game performance he needed to truly pop.
So, he put in the work.
“I think I’m definitely a lot quicker,” Overstreet said. “I think at the Underclass Combine, I ran a 7.35, and I just recently put up a 6.91. I think my mental game has improved a lot too. I’ve been working with Brandon Guyer, and he’s helped me a lot with calming down and slowing the game down mentally. I’ve been eating the right foods, I’ve been working out about three times a week with my trainer, Alex Simone, and he gets me eating the right stuff and puts me through the right things; squats, lots of baseball-specific training, it’s all great. The biggest improvement I’ve made, I think, has been my rotational power. My swing used to be a little disconnected, and I just didn’t have enough torque. He had me doing all these lifts that made my rotational power a lot better.”
All of that is great, of course, but in today’s day and age, it isn’t necessarily either unique or enough to separate you from the pack. Translating all of it into actual improvement and production is, which is something Overstreet feels like he’s been able to accomplish.
“It feels really good, knowing you put in all this work on and off the field,” he said. “To see it come together in games with your team and succeed, it’s a great feeling. You can’t beat it, honestly.”
Overstreet is a natural shortstop who can prefers to play on the left side of the infield, but can play virtually anywhere; he played the corner outfield spots this fall, as well as second base. With only so many spots available at so many schools, he knows the value in showing that he can be a fit in many different spots on the field.
“It definitely helps a lot,” he said. “I know a lot of coaches right now, with the uncertainty that COVID has brought, they don’t know what spots they’re going to have filled with seniors and juniors coming back and stuff like that, so it honestly just opens so many more doors when you play more than one position.”
His versatility, recent measureables and more are all available to be seen on EliOverstreet.com, a website his family helped him put together that can help him better market himself and get exposure for college programs that may be interested in bringing him in. Between that and a strong presence on social media, he seems to have a unique understanding of what it takes to get seen in what today’s recruiting process looks like.
“Twitter has been the most important thing in my recruiting process,” he said. “It’s the best tool I have. The website is awesome, and thanks to my parents for helping me make that, it’s a great tool, and it’s really easy for coaches to click on it and see everything they need; videos, transcripts, coach contacts. But with Twitter, just being active and promoting myself and connecting myself with other people, it’s really helped a lot. Having a social media presence on Twitter has gotten me most of the interest that I have, really. With all the rules nowadays, with COVID, with schools not having enough money to travel, it’s a great tool to have and it’s really important.”
Overstreet says he’s met with a few coaches already and toured some campuses already, but he’s just trying to feel it all out and make the best decision for him, devoting some time to watching some college baseball and seeing where he might fit in to a given program down the road. It’s all enough to keep him very eager to ditch that “uncommitted” tag when the time is right.
“It gets me pumped,” he said. “I can’t wait. I get a little too excited, and I know that I need to wait for the right time. I need to make sure that it’s the right choice, because I know with the whole decommitting thing, a lot of people don’t like it. But I’m really pumped, I can’t wait. I know it’s coming soon.”
Overstreet will continue putting in the work no matter how it all plays out, and is hopeful to re-unite with the Future Stars Series at some upcoming events, grateful for the opportunities he’s had so far, and excited to show the improvements he’s made in his game since the last we saw him.
“I think Future Stars Series has been really helpful,” he said. “In the (time) I was the Underclass Combine, I had an insane amount of coaching. The coaches are great, everyone knows what they’re talking about. It’s a high-energy game, and they coach, but they don’t stop the game to coach. It’s all embedded in, and it’s really good. It’s a lot different; nobody has a gun up in your face, nobody’s pressuring you to throw as hard as you can or take five crow hops, it’s all about how consistent you are. It’s a great environment. Y’all do a great job of getting people out there and getting kids seen.”
