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Two key members of Western Nevada College's Wildcats baseball team have made commitments to top notch university baseball teams on the first day of the NCAA fall signing period. In a ceremony today, sophomore center fielder Logan Parsley signed a Letter of Intent to play next year at the University of Nevada, Reno, and freshman pitcher James Nygren signed a commitment letter for Oregon State University.

Parsley is a 2006 Carson High School graduate who played an important role in the Wildcats' amazing 2007 season that saw them win the NJCAA Region XVIII and Western District championships and earn a berth at the NJCAA World Series.

"Logan was a big part of our run up to the World Series," playing second and third base, said WNC Head Baseball Coach D.J. Whittemore. "He's really the poster boy for why our Western Nevada program is so valuable to the community. Logan was able to stay local and get the skills he needed and now he's being given the chance to help the University of Nevada. It's great that local kids see our program as a good place to start."

Nygren, of Klamath Falls, Ore., is a right-hander whose fastball reached 95 mph in the fall scrimmage season. "He'll pitch at the top of our rotation," Whittemore said. "But the thing I like best about him is that he's a bulldog on the mound."

Whittemore said that Nygren was largely unrecruited out of high school, and he credits Wildcats assistant coaches Kevin Edwards and Dennis Banks with developing him into a prospect worthy of Oregon State, which won both the 2006 and 2007 College World Series.

"It's really an honor for our baseball program just to be mentioned in the same sentence as OSU," Whittemore said. "It helps us feel like we've arrived."

In total, 11 Wildcats baseball student athletes have signed with NCAA Division I schools since spring 2006.

Wildcats standouts James Nygren, left, and Logan Parsley sign letters of intent to play at NCAA Division I universities for 2008.