The next spring we went to watch my nephew play in a D3 game. It was ok baseball, but some of the kids wouldn't have played on our HS team.
Don't be misled by this statement. There are many D3 baseball programs where all the players were all conference in high school. There are D3 programs where some of the players could have played D1 but chose the D3 for its high academic standards and reputation.
RJM.....you're correct....and as you said, seeing that game really just gave us the realization that "yes, he can play in college"....nothing more. He was a HS freshman and hadn't seen the field in a varsity game at that point. I didn't look at it and say "oh, he'll start at SS in D3...I just figured that based on what we saw that day, there was likely a spot for him somewhere when it came time for college. He was 5'3 and maybe 110 pounds when we watched that game. He grew 8 inches and gained 60+ pounds in the 2 and a half years between then and when he committed this past August. If he hadn't, who knows where he'd be right now.