Higgins signs Letter of Intent with Bruins

BELLEVUE, Neb. -- Bellevue University baseball coach Duane Monlux announced today the signing of Payton Higgins (Enoch, Utah/Treasure Valley CC) to a National Letter of Intent to continue his baseball and academic careers at Bellevue beginning in the fall.

Higgins comes to BU from Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore. where he was an outfielder for the past two seasons for the Chukars. In 79 career games, he hit .262 with 21 extra-base hits and 39 RBI while posting a .396 on-base percentage and a .365 slugging average.

This past season, Higgins slashed .265/.385/.373 with an OPS of .758 that included 12 extra-base hits and 15 RBI while scoring 31 runs an going a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts.

Coach Monlux on Higgins:

"Payton has been a mainstay in the lineup for Treasure Valley CC the past two seasons. He has a lot of quality at-bats in the NWAC, which is a very good junior college league. We are excited for him to get to campus. We expect him to be right in the mix for us in the outfield this spring."

Higgins joins earlier signees Andrew Ishii (Salem, Ore./Chemeketa CC), Josh Vaughan (Boise, Idaho/College of the Siskiyous), Charlie Patterson (Eugene, Ore./Lane CC), Josh Jespersen (Fremont, Calif./Canada College), McGrane Pledger (Walnut Creek, Calif./Laney College), and Ty Jordan (Roswell, N.M./Otero JC) in the Bruins' 2019 recruiting class.

Bellevue concluded the 2019 season with a 48-16 overall record and 23-1 mark in NSAA play. The Bruins closed the year by winning 41 of their final 44 games en route to earning the program's 14^th Avista NAIA World Series Appearance. BU claimed both the NSAA Regular-Season and Tournament titles before going on to win the NAIA Opening Round – Shreveport Bracket.

Treasure Valley CC Stats: