Molly Harris, center, watches as Audrey West signs her letter during signing day at Whitehouse High School in Whitehouse, Texas, on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Last June, Whitehouse baseball became the first UIL team in any sport to reach the state tournament as a No. 4 seed.

On Tuesday morning six of those players reaped the benefits.

Smiling and laughing just as they do in the dugout, the six Wildcats joined with three other Whitehouse students to sign collegiate letters of intent to extend their careers at the next level.

Three Wildcats will be headed to the NCAA Division II ranks in the Great American Conference: Clayton Pruitt at Southern Arkansas, Patrick Miner at Arkansas Tech and Bryce Cundieff at Arkansas-Monticello – currently the top three teams in the league standings.

The other three baseball players will join the junior college ranks, including Ryan Walls, who will play both baseball and basketball at Tyler Junior College. Mason House signed with LSU-Eunice and Brandon Rossiter inked with Paris Junior College.

“It’s kind of a dream come true for all of us to sit here on this stage in front of everybody signing to all different colleges,” Walls said.

Also signing Tuesday were punter/kicker Eddie Godina (Trinity Valley), volleyball setter Molly Harris (Panola College) and athletic trainer Audrey West (Texas Lutheran).

For the six signing to play baseball, last year’s memorable run to the state semifinals likely played a key role in getting the players on the radar of many colleges.

“It definitely opened some more eyes,” said Miner, who will both pitch and play the field for the Wonder Boys. “It bettered me as a player having that experience playing those big games, helped me focus up a little more.

“Overall just made me strive to be better in the upcoming season, which ultimately led to me getting offers.”

Added Cundieff, a pitcher: “Last year, the big run helped everybody get noticed. … It helped a lot of us get noticed by a lot of schools.”

Whitehouse fell to Grapevine 7-0 in the Class 5A state semifinals in June. Only one starter from that team – Landry Mayo – graduated, leaving expectations sky high for this season, despite the Wildcats finishing fourth in District 16-5A last year.

However the Wildcats had a rough start to the 2017 season, failing to win their first four games.

Many began to wonder if the 2017 Whitehouse team would fall into the same trap as the 2014 team, which returned most key figures from the unit that reached state in 2013 but was swept out in bi-district.

“We use that a lot as an example,” said House, an outfielder. “If we’re having a bad day at practice, we’re bringing that up, kind of push us through practice. We’re trying real hard to not have that happen again.”

Whitehouse turned things around after a 4-1 win over Robert E. Lee, having won 12 of the last 13.

Derrick Jenkins’ team is now 12-4-1 heading into District 17-5A play, which begins next week with a series against Ennis, a team the Wildcats beat in the area round of last year’s postseason.

“We’ve been working really hard, putting a lot of hours at practice and just staying on the constant grind, just trying to better ourselves,” said Pruitt, an outfielder.

One player grinding more than most is Walls, who tore his ACL right before the start of the basketball season.

The 6-7 forward can light it up from long range – he made 130 3-pointers at a 40-percent clip before his senior year – but had a freak accident jumping during preseason practice and missed the entire season.

“To watch him have to go through that was tough,” Wildcats basketball coach Brent Kelley said. “He did a great job of handling that, though, probably better than me.”

Walls, the Wildcats’ ace pitcher who shared Player of the Year honors with House on the 2016 All-East Texas Baseball Team, said he’s ahead of schedule on his rehab and hopes to be back by the start of the postseason.

While Walls will be attempting to excel in two sports at TJC, Godina will be trying to hold down two starting jobs at Trinity Valley.

The starting punter and kicker for coach Adam Cook and the Wildcats the last two seasons, Godina will be the starting punter at TVCC but has competition to be the starting kicker.

As a senior punter, Godina averaged 37.2 yards with a long of 55 and five inside the 20. For his career kicking, Godina hit on 55 of 63 PATs and 6 of 8 field goals with a long of 41.

He said he chose Trinity Valley because of the coaching staff.

“They care so much about the student athletes and they’re always on us, they’re very strict about passing classes before playing,” Godina said.

Like Godina, Harris will be looking to compete for a starting spot, something that wasn’t always required for the District 17-5A Setter of the Year. She’ll also be joining some of her club teammates playing with the Fillies.

“Competing for a spot will be exciting and scary but it’ll be awesome,” Harris said. “I know it’s going to be a lot harder, the workouts and stuff, but I think I’m pretty prepared for that.”

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