Pedro Alvarez had the chance to play for a top high school baseball program. Any school would have been glad to have him.

But instead of going to a PSAL powerhouse like George Washington or a more well-known CHSAA school, Alvarez and his family chose Horace Mann, a $30,000-per-year private school in Riverdale that typically sends its students to Ivy League colleges to become doctors and lawyers, not baseball players.

“It was important to me that I get a good education first,” Alvarez said. “I figured if I was good enough at baseball, people would find me.”

They have.

On a recent afternoon, dozens of scouts scurried near the backstop any time Alvarez, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior, went to the plate. And these weren’t the usual bird dogs that typically come to see a high school player with potential, but regional directors who only show up when he is considered a stud.

While Alvarez – who plays shortstop for Horace Mann but will be shifted to third base at the next level – didn’t have his best day at the plate, he still managed to impress the scouts.

After a win over Trinity, the lefty-hitting Alvarez stuck around, picked up a wooden bat and began drilling line drives to all fields in front of the scouts in an individual workout.

It was something the Inwood resident had to do, since he knows he isn’t going to get drafted just based upon what he does against the weak competition in the city’s Ivy League.

“That’s why I had to play for the Bayside Yankees last summer,” Alvarez said of his outside team, where he really made a name for himself last year.

His strong showing against the best talent in the area led him to be pegged by scouts as the top prep player in the state and helped him earn a scholarship to Vanderbilt. Alvarez will head there if he isn’t selected high enough in the June 7 MLB draft, where he is expected to go in the first five rounds.

His head coach at Horace Mann is confident that day will go well.

Matt Russo, who is in his first full season with the Lions, was a catcher at Xaverian and a batterymate of Ruddy Lugo, a seventh-round draft pick of the Brewers in 1999.

“Pedro is the most talented player I’ve ever seen,” Russo said. “He’s got everything. The skills, the leadership, the maturity.”

Those traits have helped Alvarez remain calm about his future.

“Either way, it’s going to be a good situation for me,” said Alvarez, who would study engineering if he goes to Vanderbilt.

Alvarez’s family came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when Pedro was a 1-year-old. His father, Pedro, Sr., is a cab driver with a private company and, despite being from Santo Domingo, didn’t really play baseball growing up.

“Not much,” the elder Alvarez said. “That’s why I want him to go to school. We got calls from a lot of schools when he was in eighth grade, but I wanted more for him than just sports.”

Alvarez got that – and the sports part didn’t turn out badly, either.