My 2021 who was headed D1 (kids in his travel organization were verbally committing in freshman year and he was right there with them skill/ability wise) had an injury that sidelined him sophomore year. He came back stronger than ever but had lost the recruiting momentum. Then COVID hit and HS junior season shut down. He was able to play some travel over the summer, but even those tournaments were always dicey given COVID. He did start to get "re" interest from D1s, but most were "we like you, but we're not sure what's going on bc of COVID" and thus summer was agony. Along the way he had attracted a D3 RC who basically wouldn't leave him alone. Turns out its a highly competitive baseball school (but not HA) that wasn't on my son's radar bc it was D3. After visiting the school and meeting the HC (who continued to "show him the love") my son started coming around. We also realized he could get great merit money. It took a while longer, and some of his D1 buddies getting their offers cut or rescinded, but he finally decided to commit to the D3. We had many talks about what it meant to pursue his dream vs the reality of having to make a living. While it's not the path he thought he'd be taking, it seems like the right one given everything going on. The clock ticking definitely contributed.