By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
Coming off of a statement win over No. 25 Ole Miss at Daikin Park, Baylor was readying to face an even taller task: No. 3 Texas.
Less than an hour before first pitch, junior infielder Robert De La Garza learned he would be making his first start as a Bear.
“[I knew] less than an hour before the game started,” De La Garza said. “I knew I was going to play during that week because [Thompson] talked to me during practice like, ‘Hey, you’ve had some good live ABs.’ I was ready.”
He patiently waited through the first nine games of the season, not seeing any playing time but working hard in practice. When he got the nod, his teammates were there to cheer him on as his work began to pay off.
“They were just as excited as me, maybe even more, a little bit more excited,” De La Garza said. “Everyone came up and said, ‘Hey, come on, you got this, kid.”
Through a mix of nerves and excitement, De La Garza walked up to the plate after popping up in the second. After working the plate appearance to a full count, he drew a walk against Luke Harrison, one of Texas’ top pitchers.
De La Garza’s former coaches and teammates at Odessa College got to see the plate discipline they watched for the past two years.
“One of the coolest things that I saw with his first start is he took a walk, but it was a long at-bat, he turned to his dugout with two strikes and pounded his chest,” said Jay DeSoto, his former infield coach. “That’s something that we do here at Odessa College … we’re going to fight, we’re going to battle with two strikes.”
Under the bright lights of a Major League park, competing against a top program, De La Garza did not want to disappoint.
“It’s not every day you can go against Texas, you’re not going to be playing in Houston,” De La Garza said. “I just wanted to make the best of my opportunity.”
Part of what made that moment special for De La Garza was his journey to Baylor. Like many talented players throughout the country, De La Garza was not heavily scouted by big-name programs. He decided that going to Odessa College was the best path for him, and looking back on it, he appreciates all he accomplished over the past two years.
“I’ve been blessed because you don’t always get these opportunities,” De La Garza said. “Coming out of high school, you didn’t get recruited much, and then JUCO took a chance on you, and then freshman year, you didn’t play much and then had a pretty good year sophomore year … it’s a lot of steps to get here, but I’m just blessed to say I’m able to be here and play for Baylor.”
Since becoming a more common bat in the Bears’ lineup, De La Garza has recorded a .313 batting average with four multi-hit games across 12 games played.
De La Garza’s early success is no shock for those at Odessa College. DeSoto credited De La Garza’s commitment to his work and called him an “all-conference human.”
“Freshman year he didn’t play a whole lot,” DeSoto said. “But it was every single day where he continued to grab the bull by the horns and continued to work, every single day.”
While De La Garza has grown close with his Baylor teammates, his bond with the guys from Odessa remains apparent, even after moving on to Division I.
“We played one of my teammates last weekend [at] Oklahoma State, Bryce LeBlanc, he came in to pitch Sunday, a big, tall lefty, and then there’s also another guy, his name is Daniel Lopez, he’s at Kansas this year,” De La Garza said. “We had a good amount of guys go Division I.”
De La Garza faced LeBlanc in the Bears’ final game of the series against Oklahoma State. After going down in the count 0-2, De La Garza knew he could not let his former Wrangler teammate get the bragging rights.
“I’m not going to strike out to this guy because I already know I’m going to get a text after the game,” De La Garza said. “It’s always fun seeing them and then competing against them, just as we would in practice.”
De La Garza drew a ball, then flew out to center field.
He has remained a strong supporter of his Odessa teammates. From cheering them on in JUCO ball to competing against each other, De La Garza has not wavered in his attitude to his friends and the game he loves.
“You just continue to work and continue to grind and never look back, and that’s what he did,” DeSoto said. “Whether he was on the field or not on the field, he was just always cheering on his teammates or performing at a really high clip.”
