Ryanrod23,
the point of my response to sqeezeplay was that it is very hard to make over generalizations at the D3 level, on a National basis, on who does/does not over recruit.
I am confident schools like Pomona Pitzer and Trinity U do not and cannot over recruit. I don't know about Linfield and Chapman but have never heard of it being an issue.
As a general rule, schools with demanding admissions and academics, which are also nationally ranked in baseball usually don't over recruit. They cannot. They cannot get enough players through admissions, with adequate financial aid.
Normally, programs of that type only get a portion of the players admitted who are recruited, even though they might prefer to have more admitted.
On the other hand, competition is what college baseball is all about. The better the program, the better the depth and competition for playing time/innings. Programs which do not over recruit will look to bring in highly talented players in the next recruiting class. Coaches want the best players they can recruit and have admitted. They want each season to be one where every player is constantly challenged and pushed to improve, whether they are a freshman or senior.
Teams do not get better when the players do not.
As for players getting called and invited in July by D3's...congratulations.
That was not our experience other than one early call where the TU coaches expressed interest, said they expected DI's to recruit our son, but to know their interest wouldn't change if the DI didn't materialize.
In general, top D3's are looking at players with some DI skills. They normally identify these players during the Summer/Fall after the junior year.
For many D3's with limited recruiting budgets, it just does not make economic or resource allocation sense to start in July. They wait until they are reasonably sure which potential recruits attracted DI interest and have that option and which don't. That is October/November. These coaches also know, for some of their top recruits, they will be battling all the way to the start of school the next August. The reason is many of these types of players get late DI interest in the Summer after their senior year. Sometimes the player opts for the late DI and sometimes not.
However, not all coaches/staffs do this in the same way. Anyone getting contacted by D3's at this point should appreciate it is likely genuine interest. It might reflect programs which are willing to recruit head to head against DI and DII's, it might reflect a coach who views the player as a likely D3 level player, or it might suggest they recruit from a very big pool of players.
The fact players are getting recruiting calls/visit invitations in July from D3's is further evidence that there is no one right/wrong way. If the calls are coming from D3's which are nationally ranked and successful year in and year out, the staff knows what works best in their situation.