For Gunner and Baseball Dad, my son is right now experiencing what you have described is in your sons' futures. He is a freshman at a decent D3 program, in a tough conference, competing with two other freshman and a returning sophomore for his position and, unfortunately, it looks like he's not winning out. He's determined to stay in there, grind, and take his opportunities where he can get them but, at 5'11"/180, he is smaller than the others and sort of fell in the program's lap at the last minute, due to injury late in the HS timeline. My point there is that he wasn't one of this HC's heavily recruited players so was probably at the bottom of the board from the get-go. My son went into this with eyes wide open, as he really liked the school and wanted to be there with or without baseball, but there is no way to really know what it's going to be like until you're in it. It's tough for me to be a spectator to it all from afar but he's got quite a few other interests and activities going on so I'm sort of secretly preparing myself for the end of baseball (though he has not indicated much in that direction). I've mentioned before out here that everything after his injury has been gravy, so I really have no complaints, but it will be a tough bit of news regardless. The only advice I can really give is to provide positive feedback/support to them no matter what the situation or outcome. They're learning a lot about themselves, and life, during these times and hopefully your son will have a coaching staff that's open to discussing where they stand at any given moment. This is an invaluable quality to avoid any stringing along. At least in my son's situation, being a catcher, they're probably never going to tell him "yeah, you'll probably never start" because they can never have enough guys to catch pens but if he knows where he stands he can make the most informed decisions for his future. Transparency in a coaching staff is critical! Best of luck!