"I have a 2020 and I took him through Manhattan after Cooperstown just to walk around the streets of New York. To say he HATED it is a massive understatement. He's a Georgia boy who loves baseball and wants to play in College but the city buildings, the smell, the lack of nature, just the vibe of the city in general made him very uncomfortable. Inner City Colleges will be off his list no matter what the baseball program is like."
Its never too early to begin creating college possibility lists: one list for baseball, the other without baseball. Both lists should represent realistic possibilities (e.g., if your son doesn't have Vandy quality baseball skills, don't put Vandy on the baseball list). Wherever those two diagrams overlap are your highest priority targets.
I quoted CaCo3's post to show how a kid's ideas of where he'd like to attend can change. My S had a very similar reaction to repeated visits to Manhatten; he ruled out New York City early and stuck to it. He chose a school sitting near NYC. After his freshman year, and after repeated trips with his friends to NYC on weekends, he admittedthat he had not understood NYC's gravitational pull and wished he hadn't been so stubborn. Kids ideas of college and career possibilities change - alot; it's tough not to impose certain adult bias' and feelings into his selection process.
So, you have plenty of time; but don't delay in making progress every day in the classroom and on the field. Don't push those standardized tests back, rather take them as soon as he's is ready - the earlier the better. The better his scores, the more options for college. At the same time, bringing his baseball skills to a D1 level is a long, incremental process. Balance the travel ball with personal lessons developing those personal skills - while baseball is a team game, players get recruited based upon individual skills.
Begin the discussion with finances in mind: finances can have a huge impact on the list. Get familiar with his school's counselors - will you need to do the college leg work yourself, or are the counselors helpful? Is he taking the hardest HS curriculum his school offers? The more difficult (assuming success), the more colleges.
If this is your first child getting ready for college, the mountain of knowledge you need to accumulate and digest is enormous. But you've got time.