Reinhardt headed for USC

Mike Sciacca

Doug Reinhardt concluded a busy summer of baseball last week by

verbally committing to USC.

The Laguna Beach resident, who on Tuesday began his senior year at

Santa Margarita High, committed to the Trojans although the national

signing day isn’t until November.

The 6-foot-3, 210 Reinhardt, a third baseman at Santa Margarita,

had been selected in August to compete in the prestigious Area Code

Games which were played at Blair Field in Long Beach.

The Area Code Games, billed as the “World Series of high school

baseball,” was formed in 1987 to showcase the talent of student

athletes to professional baseball scouts and top collegiate and Major

League baseball teams.

Eight different teams from throughout the country competed at the

Area Code Games and players came from the U.S., the Dominican

Republic and Puerto Rico.

“It was a good cultural experience,” Reinhardt said. “I got to

play ball with some of the best players around. It gave me the

opportunity to rate myself against the other players.”

Reinhardt said that he had to survive three tryout sessions in

order to qualify for the Area Code Games.

Professional scouts, who had the chance to see players perform

during the 2003 prep baseball season, extended invitations to some

250 players to try out for the games.

The first two tryouts were held at Loyola Marymount University in

Los Angeles, the other, he said, was held in Fresno.

Reinhardt was one of 90 players, he said, that made the final cut

and faced one final tryout session at USC. Of the 90 finalists, the

players were whittled to a select 50.

Those 50 layers were split into two teams representing California.

Reinhardt, who played for the Brewers Blue team, played at each

infield position in six tournament games played in six days.

At the conclusion of the tournament, he was selected to the Area

Code All-Star team, a team selected based on who the top players were

during the week-long tournament.

In addition to baseball, Reinhardt played football his first three

years at Santa Margarita and played quarterback and outside

linebacker. He is sitting out the fall football season to concentrate

on baseball, he said.

“I’m going to miss playing football but I know I need to just

focus on baseball right now,” he said.

Reinhardt was a first-team All-Serra League baseball pick and went

on to be named first-team All-CIF Division I team following a junior

year that saw him hit .430 with six home runs.