ORANGE, Calif. – Baseball has always been an escape for Orange Lutheran senior, Brandon Heidal — a distraction from the world around him. 

But these days, picking up a baseball and a bat means confronting one of his biggest worries, a concern over his future. 

On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsome said he expects schools to remain closed through the end of the school year, meaning a likely end to the spring season for high school athletes across Southern California. 

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As an uncommitted senior baseball player, Heidal is now dealing with unchartered territory. After all, there's not exactly a rule book at getting recruited to play at the next level when you can't play games. 

“Senior year, I was really relying on this season to get the exposure I needed to think about my future and now that that could be gone," he said. "I have no clue what I’m going to do.”

He's taken to working out in his garage or hitting a few balls in his batting cage to clear his mind. The goal, he said, is to focus on something he can control. 

“It’s brutal," Heidal explained. "We’ve been working for this and having something that's over our control take it away is the worst possible thing.”

These are feelings he would normally talk about on the baseball field, with one his best friends and fellow teammate's Max Rajcic. 

But like Heidal, Rajcic is also stuck at home, coping with the uncertainty of his own future. The senior pitcher is committed to play at UCLA, but with the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility to spring athletes, he "has no idea what that might mean" for his own playing time next season. 

Plus, as one of the top high school prospects in the country, he had been getting a lot of early buzz from the MLB Draft — that is before his senior season was cut short. 

“Playing in the major league, that's been a dream of mine since I’ve been a little kid," Rajcic said. "It’s kind of devastating not to have the chance to see [if I could make that happen] this year.” 

Rajcic and Heidal are two teammates dealing with two unique issues; confronting a new reality brought on by the spread of the coronavirus. While they continue to navigate the next few weeks, they're also learning to cope with the fact that they may never play alongside each other again. 

“It hurt me and I bet it hurt the whole baseball community," Rajcic said. "I just miss having fun with my teammates. Every time I was on the field with them something fun would happen every day.”

“I’m really hoping that this isn’t the end," Heidal echoed. "I just want to play with my friends again. I don’t want it to be the last time.”

For now, they'll have to play a waiting game as they look for a final decision from the California Interscholastic Federation. 

But because they can't play together for the time being, Heidal and Rajcic will continue to take comfort in something that can't really be taken away from them...baseball.