Is Sebastian David the Next Corbin Caroll?

When Sebastian David was starting 6th grade at Lakeside in 2016, all he was doing was working hard on both academics and athletics. Little did he know that, after his freshman year, he would be committed to playing baseball at Stanford. You may be wondering, who is Sebastian David? Well, David is currently a freshman at Stanford University and a Lakeside alumnus. This is a great feat on its own, but did you know that he seldom thought about his college future? During an interview in April of 2023, he said, “I didn't really think it was going to happen at first really, I mean, all I was focusing on was just working hard.” He just kept working hard throughout his career in both school and baseball. 

David was easily the best player on the team; in their final playoff game of the 2023 season, David went 2-2 and scored Lakeside’s only run. Without him, Lakeside would not have made it as far as they did.

David was one year short of playing baseball at Lakeside with Corbin Carroll, the Lakeside star who now plays outfield for the Arizona Diamondbacks. David still completely looked up to Carroll when he came to the high school. David said, “I definitely looked up to Corbin as a really great player, [he] had a great work ethic, and was definitely really inspiring for me, coming into the upper school as a Lakesider.”

David didn’t have to talk to Stanford to get in. Stanford talked to him. The coach of one of his select teams, Norcal, knew the Stanford coach. Sebastian put it like this: “One of my baseball coaches for my California team got in contact with the Stanford coach there. And they had a really good list going on with each other. And they introduced me to the coach. And then, from then on, we just started talking. I talked with a bunch of other schools, but Stanford was always my number one. That's kind of how it started off. And then they offered me and I verbally accepted it.” But all this wasn’t easy. Going into high school, school gets a lot harder. And so does baseball.

To know if Sebastian is really like Corbin Carroll, we need to wait till he plays for Stanford. In the meantime, Sebastian isn’t all about baseball. He said that he doesn’t know what major he will choose in college, but he is interested in economics and a program called Management, Science, and Engineering, which “involves a little bit of finance engineering, in business.” 

He makes a great statement to all baseball players my age, which is to enjoy the game and have fun. “Because the main part of the game is to enjoy playing baseball,” he said. “I would say just over my time playing baseball, sometimes I forget that and get caught up too much. And I'm working on things like my mechanics or my mindset and stuff like that. At the end of the day, enjoy the game.”