Photo: Keegan Symons celebrates a strikeout in a win over LeTourneau on March 29, 2024 (Photo by Bob Sanford)
BELTON–Through his first three years in the UMHB baseball program, Keegan Symons’ number was seldom called.
Unless you were in the stands for the March 13, 2022 win over Austin College, you would have never seen Symons pitch at Red Murff Field…until this year.
In the midst of one of the best starts to a season in program history, Symons has made his mark, four years in the making. The native of Spring, Texas has made five starts and thrown 29.2 innings for UMHB highlighted by a 27-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2024, which is remarkable considering that Symons, a senior, entered this spring having recorded just three innings in the entirety of his college career.
“He’s a fourth-year guy,” UMHB head coach Mike Stawski said recently. “He’s seen it all. But he had three innings coming into this year. Now he’s a cog in the wheel. He’s a starter on the backend of the weekend and it’s been awesome for us. And he’s arguably been our most valuable pitcher because he has had to step in at a critical moment right now for us.”
The stellar string of performances began on Feb. 27, in an early road win at St. Thomas. Symons struck out six batters and allowed just four hits and a run in five innings of work, propelling UMHB to victory. He then battled through a less-than-memorable outing at Howard Payne that went just 2.1 innings and bounced back in wins over Schreiner and McMurry, with six strikeouts apiece in both.
The right-hander has continually displayed a sense of maturity, through both the highs and lows that have inevitably come in the first half of the season.
“A big thing has been just getting ahead of everybody [in the count],” Symons said of his recent pitching performances, shortly after a narrow 3-0 loss to ETBU. “Today, I fell behind everybody, which was why I was out there only three innings. So I didn’t do the job today, but usually I just get ahead and that’s been a way for me to have success.”
Coming out of Concordia Lutheran High School in the Houston area, Symons wasn’t recruited by UMHB. Instead, he took the path less traveled…and walked on.
“I wanted to come to school here, for sure,” Symons noted. “Obviously, I wanted to play baseball. So I talked to Stawski a little bit, but walking on here was probably the best decision I made.”
His path to earning a roster spot, much less a role in the starting rotation, was vastly different from the majority of his teammates from that standpoint alone.
In the UMHB baseball program, “walking-on” is not just a matter of showing up for a tryout on a random September afternoon. Instead, head coach Mike Stawski and his staff have prospective walk-ons attend all of the team’s fall meetings, in order to gain a feel for the program and “what the expectations and standards are.” Along with that, they have the opportunity to work out with the team prior to fall practice, and that aspect, Stawski said, often proves to be both humbling and challenging for plenty of hopefuls.
“This last year, we had 24 guys who wanted to try out for the team and who were at our first team meeting. Tryouts were about a month later. And we had seven guys show up to tryouts.
“What happens is, a lot of guys come to the meetings and go, ‘Holy cow, I didn’t really realize I had to lift four days a week, and have study table four hours a week, and community service and all of these other responsibilities. I don’t want to do that.’
“So we lose some guys because of that, and we lose other guys because they get out on the field, and realize, ‘I don’t throw that hard. I don’t know if I can hit off of that guy. I’m not going to be able to play third base; that third baseman is way better than me.’ And they just kind of realize, ‘Man, I’m not cut out for this’ and decide not to try out.
“So the guys that do actually make it to the tryout, we’re always excited for. It doesn’t mean we’re going to take any of them, but we’re excited that they made it through all of the meetings, and preseason workouts, and still said, ‘I still want to do this.’
In the fall of 2020, Symons was one of those who made it all the way to the tryout, having proven his commitment and dedication day-in and day-out to his future teammates. His passion for the sport and desire to be part of the program was evident, and that went a long way. Especially considering, as is the case with the majority of walk-ons, his playing time would be severely limited.
“Keegan was polished on the mound, had a nice arm, was tall and lanky and we saw something in there. He was a really great kid. We asked the guys, ‘What do you think about that kid?’ They said, ‘He was here everyday. Really great kid. I think he’d be a great fit.’ We took him, and the rest is history.”
That was only the first chapter of the story of Symons’ career in Belton. In his freshman year, he tossed one inning apiece in road losses to Texas Lutheran and Concordia (TX). In 2022, as a sophomore, he recorded one inning in the previously-mentioned March 13 win over Austin College. Last season, he didn’t pitch at all, and had just three innings pitched heading into his senior year; albeit three scoreless innings without a hit allowed. But three innings in three years isn’t the ideal pathway to becoming a starter in the weekend rotation.
“The journey can be really tough,” Stawski said, referencing the career of a walk-on player. “You have to put in all the same time and effort. You have to do all the practice stuff, and the lifts, but you don’t get to reap the same benefits of playing time. You don’t get to have that value in the box score.
“The difference with Keegan was, he never put value in the box score. He never took away value from this program based on how many innings he threw or what his ERA was. He was taking value from the relationships he was building, the experiences he was having, and being mentored by a coaching staff. That’s what he was getting out of this.”
Then a switch flipped. Symons was prepared for an expanded role entering his senior year, but when it comes to starting pitching, there are just three spots in the weekend rotation. In this case, injury created a window of opportunity for Symons, as he made his season debut with five innings in a midweek start at St. Thomas, and later that week, found himself starting the series finale at Howard Payne.
“At some point he flipped the switch and said, ‘I love where I’m at and I respect the staff and program. Now I want to help. Not just be an integral part of the team as a high-character guy who gets good grades, but I want to help on the field. He went to work, and as you can see, it’s obviously paying off.”
Symons echoed that statement.
“I just love the team every year,” Symons said. “This summer, I locked it in and worked as hard as I could to get some innings. I didn’t get many innings at the beginning of the season, but I trusted Coach and trusted my team.”
He has put together quality starts as the final month of the regular season progresses for The Cru, who head into a pivotal series against second-place UT-Dallas in Richardson, Texas this weekend. UMHB is No. 3 in the ASC standings, as both programs have 11 conference wins on the year and Symons and his pitching counterparts will be up against a UTD lineup that leads the league in both batting average (.335) and on-base percentage (.436).
Symons has proven it can be done. He made the arduous climb to a starting role as a senior, after walking on the field for his tryout at Red Murff Field four years ago as a relatively unknown right-handed pitcher. He’s a walk-on who has stayed patient, confident, and ready for an opportunity. You can’t place a value on Symons’ unwavering commitment level. It is stories such as this one that speak volumes about what makes the Division III level special, and it’s once again clear that the culture Stawski has established in his five years at the helm of the UMHB baseball program is a special one.
“It’s a world of college athletics where kids are all about instant gratification—Kids want to play right away and if they don’t, they hit the portal and you’re seeing it all over every sport,” Stawski pointed out. “It’s a college athletics epidemic. ‘I’m going to go to school A, B, C, and if I don’t get what I want or I don’t play right away, I’m going to transfer to a place that gives me what I want.’
“Keegan came here and he got three innings in three years. He didn’t pout or complain. He just got to work. He learned from guys on the team and let us coach him. He put his foot to the pedal and said, ‘This is my senior year. I want to make a difference. He put in the work.’
“It all paid off. I’m proud of him, because he is the poster child of, instead of running from a problem, maybe run to it and solve it. I’m proud of how he handled the situation and he’s getting paid back for it by sticking around and really going to work.”
