NOVI - The feeling of a college commitment is hard to top in the eyes of Bryce Wiggins.

“It felt great, like I was sitting at the top of a hill watching all my hard work pay off,” the Walled Lake Western junior said about his decision to make Mount St. Mary’s his future home. “I was getting to the point of ‘do I want to pursue this’ … but my parents pushed me, telling me you have to have an obsession with what you like.

“Two years ago I had a coach tell me I wasn’t good enough to play D-I baseball,” Wiggins added. “That made me work hard. He didn’t play me much and now a lot of those guys that did play don’t want to play now at the next level.”

That is far from the case with the 15th-rated 2024 second baseman in Michigan.

“Since I was little my goal has been to play Division I baseball,” the 16-year-old reflected. “My parents put me in the best situation I could be to get where I am today. I was motivated to achieve my goal. But this is not the final road stop. My goal is to play professionally.”

A connection with Mount St. Mary’s began at the beginning of 2022.

“I started talking to them in February when they saw me on Twitter,” Wiggins noted. “The coach invited me to a camp. I had a great high school season and they started seeing all of my videos. We had calls every other week asking how high school baseball was going. Then during the summer they were able to come see me and in August I was invited to play in the Identification Series and they saw me play there. We talked three weeks later and they offered me.”

There were a number of pluses Wiggins found at the university in Emmitsburg, Md., an hour and 45 minutes north of Washington D.C.

“I fell in love with the place when I went there,” the 225th-ranked Michigan junior said. “My sister goes to Morgan State in Baltimore so I’ll be 30 to 45 minutes away from her. That’s a big reason why I committed.

“But what really stood out there was the culture. Everybody is there for a reason. It’s one big happy family. They’re all on the same mission.”

For Wiggins, the mission is to get the program on the baseball map.

“I’m looking forward to going there, working hard and winning to help turn them from a well-known basketball school to a well-known baseball school in the time that I’m there,” Wiggins said.

Mount St. Mary’s found a lot to admire about the 6-2 166-pounder.

“They like me as a person, the way I carry myself,” explained Wiggins, who was recruited as a middle infielder. “They like the way I run on and off the field and how I pick up teammates.”

Wiggins is of the belief he can make a big impact in the program at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference university.

“I’ll bring them a phenomenal athlete that works hard,” Wiggins pointed out. “I’ll bust my butt and keep doing what I’ve been doing, but 10 times harder.”

Sports science or physical therapy are potential majors for the 3.2 student, who was also recruited by Memphis, Grambling State, Jackson State, Mississippi Valley, Maryland, Illinois State and Cincinnati.

“The stressful part was trying to manage a social life with coaches and play at the same time,” Wiggins said of a recruiting process that landed him at Mount St. Mary’s, a seven-hour drive from his home in Novi. “There was some pressure playing in front of all the coaches. There’s so much they look for and you want to fill all those checkboxes.”

Mission accomplished with Mount St. Mary’s.