SPANISH FORT — Spanish Fort’s Wes Runnels signed to play baseball for the Division I Nicholls State Colonels Nov. 17 by candle light as a power outage darkened the SFHS library scene, but not the spirit.

The Toro slugger/outfielder/linebacker was cheerful and happy with his recent decisions: Choosing baseball over football and picking Nicholls State out of Thibodaux, La., over other offers.

"It was probably the hardest decision I've ever made but I think I made the right one," he said. "There were a few teams from both baseball and football interested in me. But Nicholls looked really good and once I decided to go with baseball, I knew that's where I would be. Now I can concentrate on this spring and the team here."

Runnels said the Colonels were not on his post-high-school radar, but for a summer-league tournament near the campus. "We were just playing with an elite team out there and ending up talking to some of the coaches and they invited me to look around and I really liked it."

SF head baseball coach Tommy Walker said he expects Runnels, who already holds several career school records at the plate to improve even more after becoming a one-sport athlete. "Wes has always been split between football and baseball," Walker said. "But now, he's going to get even better when he really can focus on baseball. Nicholls State, Division I, they play all the big ones. We're excited about Wes and proud of him. To sign a D-One scholarship is tremendous and Nicholls State is a very good baseball school. Always been a baseball school. They expect him to come right in there and hit in the middle of the order and play against Alabama and LSU and Tulane. Just very good competition and he has the ability and mentality to tackle tough situations. He loves to be up there with the game on the line. He hits the ball hard. He makes people pitch around him. He has gotten much more patient the last couple of years. He holds the career record for RBIs and home runs. And that's with them pitching around him a lot. So he may get one pitch per at bat that he can hit and he doesn't miss a lot."

SF athletic director and head football coach Bryant Vincent said Runnels has been and still is a big part of the school's athletic history, especially on the diamond and the gridiron. "Wes has meant a lot to this school and we're all very proud of him."

The son of Susan and Paul and the brother of sister Brooke Runnels of Spanish Fort, Wes Runnels hopes to be batting clean up for the Colonels soon, but still has some unfinished business at linebacker for SFHS, including taking on Demopolis in the state 5A football semifinals this Friday.

"I hope we can go all the way," he said. "That would be great."