Members of the Meridian Community College baseball team sign with four-year colleges Tuesday afternoon in the school’s library.

Ryan Lane will have two more years of baseball after this coming spring, as the former West Lauderdale High School standout signed to play with Mississippi College Tuesday afternoon.

Lane was one of eight Meridian Community College baseball players who inked with schools at a signing ceremony in the school’s library. He was joined by former Neshoba Central High School standout Austin Harrison, who signed with Louisiana Tech, as well as Colby Shaw, Hunter Mullis, Jaylon Keys, Kyle Bayles, Nate Romans and Dalton Smith.

“They offered me something I couldn’t resists: free college,” Lane said. “My parents won’t have to pay for college the next two years. I could have waited and gone to another school, but they offered me a free ride, and I couldn’t turn it down.”

Lane and Harrison will both pitch when they go to Mississippi College and Louisiana Tech, respectively.

“It kind of fits my lifestyle,” Harrison said of Louisiana Tech. “It’s an all-around good school, a small school, so it’s a tight-knit family. It seemed like a place where I’d want to play. It also has some benefits other than baseball. I like to hunt and fish, and it’s a good area to do that.”

MCC head baseball coach Dillon Sudduth said seeing eight of his players sign to continue their baseball careers was one of the most fulfilling things about his job.

“You tell these guys coming in that this is a chance to go on to bigger and better things,” Sudduth said. “When you do that, it gives you a huge sense of satisfaction.”

Lane said he was happy with his decision to stay close to home after graduating from West Lauderdale in 2014, and he learned a lot in his short time at MCC.

“You go to West Lauderdale and learn all of the fundamentals and everything about baseball, and it gets you prepared for college,” Lane said. “Then when you get here, (the coaches) really teach you about hard work and discipline and realizing there’s a lot more to it than just baseball.”

Sudduth said those lessons are the most important one he can instill in his players while he has them.

“It’s not necessarily about the sport, but how to become a man: be on time, have good work ethic and do things you don’t feel like doing, but you have to do them anyway because you’re a man, and that’s what men do,” Sudduth said.

Harrison said it will be a little different being 3 1/2 hours away from home as opposed to just 30 minutes, but he’s looking forward to getting off on his own.

“I knew I’d have to drive anyway in order to play baseball somewhere,” Harrison said. “It’s fine with me. As long as I’m playing good baseball, I’m fine. I’ll be able to come home some on the weekends, so it’s not too bad.”

The rest of the signees inked with the following teams: Shaw with New Orleans, Mullis with Mississippi College, Keys with Southern Miss, Bayles with South Alabama, Romans with Ohio State and Smith with Delta State.