Things didn’t happen the way Dylan Earnest planned, but he is going to get an opportunity to play Division I baseball sooner rather than later.

The former Hamilton High School standout, who missed most of his freshman season at Itawamba Community College due to injury, gave a verbal commitment Monday to play baseball for Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He made it official Wednesday when he signed a National Letter-of-Intent.

“I wasn’t really expecting it,” Earnest said. “They had recruited me in high school. When (associate head) coach (Tony) David talked to me again this fall, I got on their website and read about their coaches and talked to (former Tupelo High pitcher) Lex (Rutledge) and heard a lot of good things about it. I heard it was a great school, and I already knew it was a great pitching program as far as developing pitchers. When I talked to coach (Mick) Fieldbinder and visited campus I liked coach Fieldbinder and felt like it was a great opportunity for me.”

Earnest was 2-0 with a 1.05 ERA in 17 innings last season as a freshman at ICC. But a pilonidal cyst, a cyst that develops along the tailbone near the cleft of the buttocks, sidelined the left-handed pitcher. He was expected to miss a little more than a month and hoped to return to the Indians in the middle of the season. But the cyst opened up again and forced Earnest to miss the rest of the season.

Earnest, who earned a medical redshirt season at ICC, returned to the mound this summer to play with the Pontotoc Red Sox American Legion baseball team. He also worked out with his teammates at ICC in the fall, but he didn’t anticipate someone who had logged only 17 innings in his first college season to get a scholarship opportunity.

But Earnest researched about Fieldbinder, Samford’s pitching coach, and the program. He found that Samford’s pitching staff ranked 22nd in the nation in ERA and first in the Southern Conference in 2011. Earnest also discovered the Fieldbinder helped Andrew Jones set a school record for saves in a season (15) and Charles Basford record the second-lowest ERA in school history (2.45). Three Bulldogs — Grant Sides, Jones, and Josh Martin — also were picked in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft.

Earnest said it was equally important that Fieldbinder’s philosophy about pitching fit with his, so he knew he had to seize the opportunity.

“After talking with (Fieldbinder), I felt like that Samford was the best opportunity to make the best out of myself as a pitcher,” Earnest said. “I feel that is where I can be the best I can be.”

In conversations with Rutledge, who was a sophomore at Samford in 2011, Earnest learned Fieldbinder helped Rutledge increase his velocity from 91 mph in high school to 98 in college. He said he hopes he can have similar success and push his velocity, which is in the mid-80s, into the low 90s, which he feels will improve his chances of playing professional baseball. He said he topped out at 87 mph five or six weeks ago in an intrasquad scrimmage.

“My ultimate goal is to get drafted and to give myself an opportunity to play professional baseball,” Earnest said. “Getting my velocity up will help with those odds. I feel like I will be able to. This gives me an extra year to improve more. Without that, I would only be there only two years and I would only have two years to work to with (Fieldbinder). I think another year will help me get another mph or two. That could be huge after graduation.”

ICC coach Rick Collier said Earnest is in the best shape he has seen him in, and he anticipates him being his No. 1 pitcher in 2012.

“I think Samford got a steal on this one,” Collier said. “I am anxious to see what he can do for a year.”

Collier said a lot of coaches didn’t get a chance to see Earnest pitch, which allowed Samford to add a pitcher he feels has a tremendous upside. He said Earnest has good control and can throw his offspeed pitches for strikes any time in the count.

“We just wanted him to get stronger and to change his body, and he has done that,” Collier said. “He has worked hard in the weight room and picked up some velocity with us. I think he can pitch at any level. That is why I think Samford is getting a steal.”

Earnest was one of the state’s most dominating pitchers in his final two seasons at Hamilton High. He was 11-0 with a 0.80 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 78 2/3 innings as a senior. He also threw two perfect games, and had a .442 batting average with 33 RBIs.

After a season filled with disappointment, Earnest is excited about how things have turned for him. Looking back, he said missing most of his first year at ICC has turned out not to be such a bad thing.

“I am ready to go,” said Earnest, who said he threw 45-50 innings this summer for the Pontotoc Red Sox. “It turned out to be a pretty good opportunity. I get another year to get my degree and another year to get better as a pitcher. I missed a year of baseball, but I also get another year back.”

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.