Brandon Cumpton chose wisely. He could have been a member of a Greenbrier soccer team that's rated No. 1 in the state right now.

"He could've been on that team," said Ron Cumpton, his father. "He started out playing soccer with all the boys on that soccer team now."

Ron Cumpton took his son to the Columbia County Recreation Department when he was 6 years old. They were looking for a team he could join.

"I played a lot growing up," Ron Cumpton said. "I wanted him to play. We went to sign him up but the only thing they'd let him play at that age was soccer. So we signed him up. T-ball came next when he was seven."

Cumpton played both sports until middle school.

"His baseball coaches wanted him to play all the time," his father said. "His soccer coaches wanted him to commit to that. We talked about what he wanted. He enjoyed playing both."

Brandon could always throw the ball. He could make the person who caught it wish they had Charmin in their glove. He couldn't do that with his foot.

He can really throw now. His father said Brandon's four-seam fastball has been clocked by scouts as high as 93 mph.

He's the standout senior pitcher on the top-ranked baseball team in Class AAAA. He will start on the mound today at Burke County as the Wolfpack begin their defense of the Class AAAA state championship.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder has signed with Georgia Tech. He won the deciding game of the state championship series against Marist last year.

That choice turned out OK.

"I just loved the game," Cumpton said. "Some guys get the itch to play baseball in January or early February. I wanted to get back playing in November."

It's not a question of if, but when he'll be drafted in the Major League First-Year Player Draft this June. Baseball America rated him the No. 93 senior in the nation this year.

"His senior year is so important," said Alan Matthews, an associate editor at Baseball America. "That's where a kid raises his stock in the draft. Brandon is going to have a lot of scouts watching him the first half of the season. That's when he can move up in the draft."

Matthews made some observations about him that are best taken in the context of talking about the nation's elite players.

"It is a very good draft class this year," Matthews said. "Cumpton, to me, is one of the guys in the second tier of pitchers. He has average velocity compared to the top prospects. He doesn't have a separator skill that puts him in with that very top group. He's got a nice mix of pitches. But I don't know if he has that one pitch that can overpower professional hitters yet. That's what the scouts are going to be looking at with the very best."

Matthews said he thinks Cumpton could go anywhere from the third to the eighth round.

"That could change," he said. "He can shoot up the draft boards with a good senior year," he said.

That's not something that Cumpton worries about. His family has always stressed a college education first over pro baseball.

"I'm really not thinking about it," Cumpton said. "I am just going to do my best and see what happens at the end of the season."

But the talk of professional paydays is months away. New Greenbrier coach Rodney Holder would rather focus on the now.

The here-and-now on Cumpton is one of the finest pitchers to ever come through Columbia County. That's despite not pitching at all until the eighth grade. Holder said Cumpton reminds him of Atlanta Brave Jeff Francoeur.

"His combination of ability and humility is where he stands out," Holder said. "The last kid I saw like him was Jeff Francoeur. Both guys could come to a ballpark and sit on a bucket and be a young man having fun playing a kid's game. What impresses me is Brandon can get around a group of third basemen we've got in practice and never acts like he's better than anybody. The kid is talented. He's smart. He's got a 90-mph fastball and he's humble through all the great things he's got going for him."

Cumpton finished last season with a 14-1 record with 87 strikeouts in 73 innings. The humility Holder mentioned shows up in the fact Cumpton doesn't mind he's not the clear-cut ace pitcher on the Greenbrier team.

Junior Nolan Belcher was 15-0 last year with a lower earned run average and more strikeouts. There's also close friend Jeff Rowland. Rowland is the center fielder on the team. He also signed a scholarship to play next year at Georgia Tech.

Cumpton doesn't seem to mind a shared spotlight one bit.

"I'd rather be a part of a team of great players than just be the one guy," Cumpton said. "That's what Greenbrier baseball has always been about."

His father notices that, too.

"I think it helps both of those guys," Cumpton said. "They kind of compete with one another and it keeps them both sharp. If Nolan throws a one-hitter, then Brandon is the type of kid who will go out the next day and try to throw a no-hitter. That's just two guys competing and I think that attitude goes both ways and helps them both."