On the day before he started his senior year of high school, Francis Howell North's Braxton Martinez made one of the bigger decisions of his young life.
On Sunday, the 17-year-old made a verbal commitment to continue his baseball career at St. Louis University.
"It's pretty much been on my shoulders all summer long," Martinez said Monday afternoon, after his first day of school. "I think once I decided where I was going to play college ball, the weight of the world was off my shoulders."
Martinez (6-3, 205), who plays shortstop and pitches, is expected to play third base when he joins the Billikens for the 2012-13 school year. He picked SLU after also considering Southeast Missouri State and Lindenwood.
"I think the coaches, from talking to them, they seem like great guys," Martinez said. "I like the facilities. I like the campus a lot. It's close to home. For me, it's just a no-brainer. They seem like they are getting better every year."
Howell North baseball coach Bobby Dunahue has coached Martinez on the varsity squad for the past three seasons. He knows how much potential the infielder has.
"I think he's special because of the fact that, let's face it, he is definitely a Division I hitter and with how he approaches the game, coachability-wise and with a high baseball IQ, he's a big-time hitter," Dunahue said. "... He's got the potential to be, he could be the real deal."
Martinez has established himself as one of the area's premier hitters the past three years.
He batted .328 with six extra-base hits, 18 RBIs and a .446 on-base percentage as a freshman. Then he hit .455 with 10 doubles, 29 RBIs and a .489 OBP as a sophomore.
Martinez had a monster junior season as a middle-of-the-lineup masher as the Knights went 19-12 and advanced to the Class 4 District 7 championship. He batted .522 (47 hits in 90 at-bats) with seven doubles, 10 home runs, 48 RBIs, 36 runs scored and a .574 OBP.
"I'm not comparing him to (Albert) Pujols, but I scouted Pujols when he played for Fort Osage," Dunahue said. "You could tell that he wasn't going to play shortstop like he was that day, but he could rake. ... Braxton's hit 93 mile-per-hour fastballs for home runs, he's hit 73 mile-per-hour curveballs for home runs. He hits changeups."
Dunahue knows the kind of player that St. Louis University coach Darin Hendrickson will be getting a year from now.
"I think Darin has gotten himself a hitting machine," Dunahue said.
Martinez knows he has to keep working to get better to put himself into position to earn playing time as a college freshman.
"They said as a freshman I'm coming in and competing for the third base position," he said. "I still have to compete and fight for the spot and work as hard as I would any other day."
Martinez is the second Howell North senior-to-be to make a college commitment this summer, following outfielder-infielder Bryan Ryberg, who previously made a verbal commitment to SIU Edwardsville.
