After a long day of school, seniors Gunnar Troutwine and Quinn Appletoft still had one last thing to write. They had to write down their signatures in their letters of intent to play baseball in college.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, Troutwine and Appletoft signed national letters of intent to play baseball in college. Troutwine signed to play with Wichita State University (WSU) in Wichita, Kan. while Appletoft committed to Southwest Baptist University (SBU) in Bolivar, Mo. Both have played baseball since childhood, even playing on the same team, the Rockhounds.
Appletoft, a pitcher, had always known that he wanted to play baseball in college. His father had played baseball in high school and his grandfather played semi-professionally.
“My junior year I really started thinking about what I had to do to be able to play in college and kind of started practicing a lot more, playing year round, getting myself more towards being able to play in college and getting better,” Appletoft said. “My dad and I started taking college visits and we’d always try to talk to the coach while we were there to put my name out there.”
Appletoft had talked earlier to the coach at SBU but during a tournament over the summer with his team, the coach of SBU had the opportunity to see Appletoft play.
Troutwine, a catcher, knew he wanted to play baseball in college after entering high school.
“[Wanting to play in college] started right after middle school,” Troutwine said. “It was a big leap from middle school to high school. Throughout the summer and fall I started taking looks at colleges and I finally found Wichita State.”
Both Appletoft’s and Troutwine’s families were standing behind them when they signed their papers. Appletoft said he was excited to sign, but Troutwine said that he was feeling nervous when he was signing.
“I was actually kind of nervous signing up there, all eyes on me,” Troutwine said. “It’s kind of a big thing to take in but I got through it and I am really excited to commit.”
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