Bear River's Lunsford signs with Sacramento State

Bear River High School senior Colby Lunsford has only shown a small sample size of what he can do on a baseball field. It's no fault of his own. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down his junior season before he had a chance to try and lead the Bruins back to the Sac-Joaquin Section title game. Bear River fell to longtime league rival Colfax in the final game of the season, a place where the Bruins might not have been without Lunsford's stellar sophomore season. In 32 games in 2019, Lunsford posted a .458 batting average, and his 49 hits were the most in the section among sophomores. He drove in 26 runs and stifled opponents on the mound with a 1.94 earned-run average while whiffing 42 batters in a team-high 36 innings. Those numbers, combined with his versatility as a catcher and middle infielder, helped Lunsford catch the attention of Reggie Christiansen, head baseball coach at Sacramento State. Lunsford verbally committed to Sac State in January and officially became a Hornet on Wednesday after signing a letter of intent on the Bear River baseball field. "It's been a dream of mine to play college baseball my whole life," Lunsford said. "I'm excited just getting an opportunity to play. I really love the coaching staff (at Sac State), and it's close to home so my family can come watch." After Lunsford's sophomore season, he suffered a concussion, a broken nose and a broken toe after a brutal collision playing for his travel team. "I was playing left field, and I ran into a brick wall and knocked myself out," Lunsford said. "I was supposed to be out for three months, but I healed up in six weeks. I lost a lot of weight, and with the concussion, it was hard to see the ball, so that made me mad. It took a while to get over that." But Lunsford persevered, returning to form before his junior season. Before the COVID shutdown, Lunsford hit .400 with 12 hits and a homer in eight games. Lunsford said what's grown the most since his first day at Bear River is his baseball IQ, an asset that will come in handy when joining the Hornets next year. "I think it's my overall ability to understand the game and play it with intent and knowing what I wanna do at the plate and in the field," said Lunsford, who plans to room with Pioneer's Hunter Timothy and Placer's Myles Meyer, who also signed to play with Sac State on Wednesday. "I'm looking forward to it a lot."