The good news came trickling in.
Over two months after the NCAA Division I Council Committee announced that all student-athletes who participated in spring sports were able to receive an extra year of eligibility on March 30 and precisely one day after the conclusion of the significantly-shortened 2020 MLB First-Player Draft on June 11, redshirt senior catcher Tucker Redden released a video through the Texas State Baseball twitter account to confirm his return to the team for the 2021 season.
#TXST catcher Tucker Redden announced he will be returning next season ⚾️ @smdrsports https://t.co/zLiLTOXVNB
— Drew King (@drewking0222) June 12, 2020
Senior Bobcats Chase Evans, Zachary Leigh, Garrett Herrmann, Wesley Engle, Jacob Little and Cole Coffey all did the same over the next four days. Will Hollis and Jaxon Wiliams followed suit on July 3.
“I was really happy for our guys that they’re getting the opportunity from the NCAA and from our administration. And so, they were all excited and I’m very excited to have those guys back,” head coach Steven Trout said. “And so, I think they see what we’re doing here and see the potential of next year’s season and they want to be a part of it do something special at Texas State.”
With nine seniors coming back, the maroon and gold will look nearly indistinguishable next year as they did this season, in which the team had built a 14-4 overall record before the COVID-19 pandemic cut it short. But the 2021 squad won’t be an exact replica.
The Daily Record reported shortly after Hollis and Williams announced their returns that right-handed pitcher Brent Hebert would not be releasing a video, becoming the only Texas State senior to decline his extra year of eligibility.
“I’m getting a little old,” Hebert said. “I’m trying to move on with my life, startup my life and trying to get away from my past. You know, just move on with the future.”
With all the @TxStateBaseball senior returners announced, I can now confirm the one who isn't: RHP Brent Hebert (@BrentHebert2)
— Drew King (@drewking0222) July 3, 2020
Hebert was dominating in 2020, posting a 3-0 record in six appearances with a 1.69 ERA and two saves. He graduated this spring ⚾️ @smdrsports
Hebert was born in Eunice, Louisiana, where he lived for 10 years before moving to Cypress. He played baseball at Cy Ranch High School alongside Herrmann, where the two would become good friends.
Hebert graduated a year ahead of Herrmann in 2015 and went on to play for his hometown junior college, LSU-Eunice. Herrmann nearly followed him there.
“Whenever he found a spot to go play, found LSU-Eunice junior college, and I didn’t have a spot to play yet, he was kind of trying to pull some strings and get me to end up where he was at and everything like that,” Herrmann said. “It ended up not working out, went our separate ways for junior college but he ended up getting redshirted, so we actually came out of junior college same time.”
Herrmann spent his JUCO days at Angelina College instead. But after committing to Texas State two years later, he decided to return the favor for Hebert.
Hebert helped the Bengals win the 2018 NJCAA Division II World Series as both a pitcher and outfielder, throwing for a 3.95 ERA and hitting for a .343 average as a redshirt sophomore. He began gaining interest from four-year schools like Central Florida and Dallas Baptist. LSU-Eunice head coach Roberto Vaz, who used to play for former Bobcats head coach Ty Harrington, wanted to make sure the maroon and gold knew about the 5-foot-10, 175-pound pitch, too.
“He had talked about (Hebert’s) competitive nature and he talked about, you know, ‘Don’t look at him in stature,’ because he’s not a very big person, physically,” Harrington said. “But he assured me you know, (Hebert’s) competitiveness and his on-the-field abilities were really good.”
“I was pushing (Hebert) super hard to try and get him to Texas State,” Herrmann said. “And then whenever I found out that Coach Trout was looking at him, I was just pushing him and pushing him.”
Hebert said he fell in love with the campus, atmosphere and coaches while on a visit to Texas State. He also couldn’t turn down a chance to play with Herrmann and made his commitment to the Bobcats official on May 10, 2018.
Harrington and Trout were immediately impressed by Hebert’s mental toughness. In the roughest and biggest moments of a game, Hebert always wanted the ball and almost always delivered. They threw him into the fire early and often at the start of the 2019 season. Harrington especially liked to put him in situations where the game was about to be decided.
For instance, on March 1, 2019, the Bobcats were playing in the Shriners College Classic at Minuite Maid Park in Houston for the first time in program history, their first game of the event coming against Rice
The contest became a pitcher’s duel, with Matt Canterino, the future 2019 Conference USA Pitcher of the Year and second-round pick for the Minnesota Twins, taking the mound for the Owls and Nicholas Fraze, a future 22nd-round pick for the Toronto Blue Jays, starting for the maroon and gold. Fraze tossed a no-hitter through six innings. Texas State scored one unearned run in the top of the seventh after Jaylen Hubbard reached on an error and Hollis later brought him home with a double to right field.
The Bobcats carried the 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth when Hebert was called on to close. The first batter he faced was a former teammate of his at LSU-Eunice, third baseman Braden Comeaux.
“I end up hitting him in the head,” Hebert said. “I didn’t perform the best.”
The next batter grounded out but allowed Comeaux to advance to second, becoming the tying run in scoring position.
Hebert struck out left fielder Andrew Dunlap looking. Rice sent in a pinch hitter, Antonio Cruz, who Hebert walked. Hebert threw three-straight strikes against first baseman Dominic DiCaprio to earn his first save of the season and seal the 1-0 win for Texas State.
“A lot of times, young people, particularly on the mound, get ahead of what’s really happening. If they have some failure, they kind of get ahead of it and start thinking the sky is falling immediately,” Harrington said. “And he was able to really, really slow the game down.”
“That’s kind of one of those first wins of that season of ‘Hey, this could be something special,’” Trout said.
The season became special for both Hebert and the Bobcats. He posted a 5-1 record with a 3.67 ERA his junior year while helping the program earn its first-ever Sun Belt Conference regular-season championship. His one loss came against 12th-ranked Baylor two days after the Rice game. It ended up being his only loss at Texas State. He developed a changeup during the offseason and was dominating in 2020, going 3-0 with two saves and chopping his ERA down to 1.69.
“I just felt confident. Like, I felt more mature, “Hebert said. “I just, I had a lot of confidence when I was on the mound. And I felt like — obviously, I know there’s a ton of players on this team, on the past teams that were out there and I felt like we had a good chance to win. But with the way I was, my confidence was, I felt like I gave myself and the team the best chance every time I went out there.”
His confidence extended off the field, too.
“I could never see him being worried about anything,” Herrmann said. “Like, you know he’s got a ton of stuff going on, plus we have 6 a.m. wake the next day and practice and games and all this stuff piling up, which would normally lead somebody else to be a little stressed. And I would even get stressed from time to time. But for whatever reason Brent just seemed like so carefree all the time. And that’s just his personality, that’s just the way it is.”
The righty’s last game of the 2020 season came on March 6, fanning five batters while throwing three scoreless innings and receiving the win in a 5-0 victory over Bethune-Cookman at Bobcat Ballpark. The Sun Belt suspended all sports indefinitely six days later.
Hebert knew right away his baseball career might be over, whether the NCAA allowed him to come back or not. He graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in general studies. Returning for another season would mean taking on another major. Taking on another major would mean staying in school for another three semesters. He’d be a sixth-year senior. It just didn’t feel right to him.
So instead, he’s leaving. He’s leaving Herrmann, who’s been his roommate during his time in San Marcos. He’s leaving Trout, who didn’t trust anyone more than Hebert in the last two innings of a game. And he’s leaving a team that looked poised to defend their conference title this season and are could very well do the same next year.
True to form, Hebert doesn’t seem worried. He’s currently on the job hunt, working toward becoming a safety manager for a construction company.
He’s also not worried about how Texas State will do without him.
“I think that team’s gonna be very special. All the seniors that are coming back are definitely hungry for another championship and to do even more than what we’ve done in the past. So I think with that and the coaches that we have, we’ll —” Hebert said, catching himself. “They’ll be fine.”
Likewise, no one is worried about Brent Hebert’s future.
“He’s a type of person you want moving to your community,” Harrington said. “His baseball career is what we’re talking about today. But in 10 years, his personal life and who he is and what he’s going to become is going to way-far exceed what he even was as a baseball player. He’s just that kind of guy.”
