University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Announces Early Signees
11/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nov. 22, 2005
HOUSTON - The University of Houston baseball team signed seven players to National Letters of Intent during the recent early signing period, head coach Rayner Noble announced Tuesday.
The group features award-winning players, all from the state of Texas. It consists of four pitchers, two catchers and an infielder with six of the seven entering UH as freshmen during the 2006-07 season. After the signings, head coach Rayner Noble, who will enter his 12th season at UH in 2006, said he was pleased with the additions.
"We did very well signing high-school players," Noble said. " A few of our pitchers have the ability to step in and play right off the bat. This is a very good signing class. I'm just very happy with it."
Behind the plate, the Cougars signed a pair of freshmen in Austin Goolsby and Chris Wallace. Goolsby, a native of Coppell, Texas, joins the team out of Coppell High School. The District 6-5A Defensive Player of the year, he helped lead Coppell to the district co-championship and a berth in the Class 5A Region I semifinals. In addition, he represented the Texas Rangers' market at the prestigious Area Code Games in August.
Wallace joins the team out of Cy-Fair High School, where he batted .369 with three home runs and 35 RBIs through the regular season and helped lead Cy-Fair to the District 17-5A co-championship in 2005. He blasted a two-run homer against Memorial High in the first game of the Region III-5A quarterfinal series.
Lormand is the lone junior college product, signing out of McLennan JC. A native of Midway, Texas, he batted .342 a year ago with three home runs and 20 RBIs. He also added 14 doubles, 15 stolen bases and 38 runs score to be named to the Region 5 East All-Star Team.
Lormand was taken in the 47th round of the annual Major League Baseball amateur draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates but elected to sign with the Cougars.
On the pitching side, Joseph compiled an 8-1 record with a 1.40 ERA and was an All-District 16-5A First-Team honoree as a junior. In addition, he was a standout wide receiver for the football team, hauling in 26 catches for 586 yards and eight touchdowns to end his prep career as Hays High's all-time leading receiver.
He was the only southpaw in the Cougars' 2005 signing class.
Righthander John Touchton emerged as a solid closer for Kingwood High and its Class 5A state championship team as a junior in 2005. In the area-round playoff series against Deer Park High, he struck out six in 4.2 innings of shutout relief and earned the win in the 11th inning.
Righthanded pitcher Norman Wittkamp joins the team out of Clear Creek High School. After starting his prep career at Friendswood High where he earned All-District and All-Galveston County First-Team honors, Wittkamp transferred to Clear Creek High for his final two prep seasons.
As a junior, he was an All-District and All-Galveston County Second-Team selection.
Righthander Chris Corrigan, who is the brother of 2006 Cougar player Clint Corrigan, also signed out of Humble High. Corrigan joined the varsity team late in the 2005 season and emerged as an effective reliever, throwing two shutout innings against Beaumont-West Brook High in the state playoffs.
2005 University of Houston Baseball Signees
as of 10 a.m., Nov. 22, 2005
| Player | Pos. | B-T | Ht. | Wt. | Cl.-Exp. | Hometown-High School (Last School) |
| Chris Corrigan | RHP | R-R | 6-2 | 155 | Fr.-HS | Humble, Texas-Humble |
| Austin Goolsby | C | R-R | 6-3 | 190 | Fr.-HS | Coppell, Texas-Coppell |
| Donnie Joseph | LHP | L-L | 6-2 | 175 | Fr.-HS | Buda, Texas-Hays |
| Ryan Lormand | INF | R-R | 6-1 | 175 | Jr.-JC | Hewitt, Texas-Midway (McLennan JC) |
| John Touchton | RHP | R-R | 6-3 | 225 | Fr.-HS | Kingwood, Texas-Kingwood |
| Chris Wallace | C | R-R | 6-0 | 200 | Fr.-HS | Cypress, Texas-Cy-Fair |
| Norman Wittkamp | RHP | R-R | 6-1 | 210 | Fr.-HS | League City, Texas-Clear Creek |
