Standing in the on-deck circle in the top of the ninth inning, Bryce Debbs '21 closely studied Trinity reliever Matthew Thomas. The Tigers were on their third pitcher of the inning, running out of arms. Southwestern was in the midst of a furious rally with bases loaded, down to its last out.

"I could feel the electricity of the moment. There was energy in the atmosphere. I felt confident," Debbs recalls. "I wish I could've had the chance."

Thomas ended the game for Trinity before Debbs could make his way to the plate, ending Southwestern's season one game away from playing Texas Lutheran University for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship. 

"If he bats in the ninth inning, we win that game," Southwestern Head Baseball Coach JC Bunch proclaims. "There's no doubt in my mind we win if he gets up to bat." 

At 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, Debbs was the most physically imposing athlete on the baseball team, if not the entire conference. Bunch once quipped Debbs could walk into the nearby Round Rock Express locker room and he'd look right at home with all the professional minor league baseball players. 

"He has an unbelievably high ceiling," Bunch said at the beginning of the year. "Has he reached it yet? No. Is it there? Yes. He could be a pro with his talent." 

On Tuesday night, Debbs turned his talent into an opportunity to play professional baseball, signing with the Ogden Raptors, an independent baseball team in the Pioneer League, which is designated as a Major League Baseball partner league.

"My coaches really prepared me for this moment with all the hard work I put in at the gym with my trainer at home and hitting in the cages," Debbs says. "Fortunately, the Ogden Raptors called me and gave me an opportunity to play professionally." 

Debbs's first opportunity to play professional baseball has taken him all the way to Ogden, Utah. The road to putting himself in that position was longer, with more twists and turns than can easily be quantified. 

Through his first two seasons at Southwestern, Debbs struggled. As a freshman, he hit .105 with four strikeouts in just 19 at-bats. He followed that with a .179 average as a sophomore, hitting 7-for-39 with 19 strikeouts. He was 2-for-5 with one RBI in four games his junior year, playing in two of the final three games before the pandemic canceled the remainder of the year. 

"Right before COVID hit, I was starting to heat up, and I thought I had an opportunity to break into the lineup," Debbs recalls. "I thought I could become an everyday right fielder or designated hitter. Then, the pandemic messed everything up." 

Heading into this season, Bunch told Debbs he'd done enough to earn the opportunity to start. Now he'd have to work to keep it. 

"I trained hard all summer, working out three times a day, working on my hitting and throwing," Debbs says. 

The results didn't translate early on. Debbs started the season slowly, hitting 5-for-26 (.192) through the first 11 games, prompting Bunch to remove him from the starting lineup after a 1-for-4 performance against Concordia on March 16. Then, after a few spot appearances against St. Thomas, Debbs was out of the mix entirely by the end of the following weekend series. 

"The first part of the season, I struggled, and he took me out to try and figure things out," Debbs says. "What helped me was the support from my teammates and trainers and hitting coach to keep going and never look back. To not quit because it only takes one shot, and I'd get another opportunity." 

Debbs watched from the dugout as his teammates reeled off 10 wins in 13 games, including a stunning three-game sweep of Centenary, which entered the weekend series ranked No. 14 in the nation after a nation's best 18-game winning streak. 

Though he wasn't on the field in games, Debbs made good use of his time. He watched other college and Major League Baseball players to study how star hitters worked their craft. He poured over film of Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr., working on revamping his load pattern — the beginning phase of the swing that builds tension to create explosion. 

"I'd watch loading patterns for different types of pitches and his confidence at the plate," Debbs says. "I also switched up my approach at the plate, taking into account different pitchers and situations." 

While Southwestern was sweeping Centenary during the regular season, Debbs took mental notes of the Gents' pitching staff while supporting his team. The work wasn't lost on his teammates. 

"He struggled early, and Coach Bunch didn't hold back on him," outfielder Maxwell Mims says. "But he kept putting his head down and going to work. If we had a bad game, he'd be there to pick us up." 

Debbs got another opportunity against Hardin-Simmons in the weekday game following the Centenary series and made the most of it with a 2-for-3 performance, scoring three runs with an RBI. He followed that with a pair of hits against Texas Lutheran, stringing together what would go on to be a nine-game hitting streak while becoming a permanent fixture in the starting lineup, primarily at the designated hitter spot. 

"When he put me back in, I figured everything out. I got into a groove and started to see the ball much better," Debbs recalls. "My confidence never went away. Since Day 1, I've been confident. The only thing that changed was I realized I needed to work 10 times harder to get back on the field." 

From the moment he returned to the lineup, Debbs was a completely different player. His play was the equivalent of adding another all-conference player to the middle of the lineup, hitting .378 with three home runs and 14 RBIs with 13 runs scored over the final 12 games. 

"The talent and the physicality of who he was have always been there," Bunch says. "The light goes on for different guys at different times, and something clicked for him some time between when he was taken out of the lineup to when he got his second shot. After that, he was a totally different player." 

His resurgence culminated in a monster performance against Centenary in an elimination game at the SCAC Tournament. He drew on the observations he took from the dugout during their regular-season series to hit 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles, driving in three RBIs with two runs scored. 

"What he did was amazing. He lost his job for not performing, along with some other things," Bunch says. "He never complained. When he got his second chance, he performed, and it was awesome to watch because he's an amazing man and goes about it the right way. To see baseball reward him at the end of the year by playing well was great to watch." 

Standing in the on-deck circle in Southwestern's final game, Debbs was confident he'd get another at-bat. The opportunity to see things through the end is, after all, why he fell in love with the game. 

"I love baseball; I've been playing since I was nine years old," Debbs says. "There's no way for you to run down the clock. Both teams have to bat eight or nine times and every single inning you have to put up three outs. There's no kneeling, no wasting the clock. The defensive team has to have the confidence and pitching to prevent the other team from coming back." 

Debbs may have had a slow start to his collegiate career, but hid a great job of battling to the last out of his collegiate career. Now, he's being rewarded with extra innings.