Our experience, and we really didn't know what the heck we were doing. Son went to SB camp after sophomore year. Got some interest and then was ghosted or wasn't interested in school for academic reasons. Son started really targeting one HA school, ie had filled out recruiting questionnaire and had been in email contact with HC. This coach was not at SB. Emails consisted of my son saying "here are my stats, here are my grades, here's where I will be playing this summer" and coach responding "Thanks, keep studying hard."
Late summer before senior year, son attended HA camp at school he had been targeting for the first time. Can't really tell you why he didn't go before other than we were pretty clueless. Son says he showed well. Son sent a follow up thank you type email. Coach then reached out via email for latest scores/transcript. Several weeks later got an email invite for a ON. Son went on ON in Oct, fell even more in love with the school and loved the experience with the players. Not sure son even said more than a handful of words to the coaches.
Then coach sent an email that said they'd like to see son apply ED, but all admissions was solely up to Admissions Committee. It was short and cryptic. Much discussion over whether or not to do so as ED was a financial commitment by us and we still had no idea how interested coach really was in our son. In the end we allowed son to apply ED due to the "fitness" of the academics, ie it was his dream school irregardless of baseball. After application is in, son gets a LL. Cryptic brief emails between coach and son continue.
Son got in ED, and almost immediately got an email from Coach congratulating him. Conversations have now gone to text and are just as brief and cryptic......which I guess explains email style.lol
Kind of a weird journey for sure, but that was our experience.