“A pretty high percentage of the athletes end up coming,” he said, adding that the trend can be attributed to a bond that recruits feel to the coach or the institution, not because Harvard requires any sort of commitment.

“It’s up to them whether they keep their applications in elsewhere,” Fitzsimmons said. “We’ve certainly had athletes who received likelies who end up not coming.”

Saathoff, who said he plans to matriculate at Harvard, said that while Harvard’s baseball coaches made it clear that they wanted him to join the team and made efforts to make the process as smooth as possible for him, they did not ask him to commit.

According to Saathoff, this procedure stands in contrast to the processes at two other schools he had considered attending: New Mexico State University and St. Mary’s College of California.

“They understood the situation, but they were still putting pressure on me,” Saathoff said of the other college. “It came down to the wire.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.