Senior infielder finishes season, baseball career

Apr 30 2009 - 12:23pm | César G. Rodriguez

Adam Witek, senior infielder, has played baseball for 16 years, but the 2009 season will be his last with the Texas State baseball team.

Coach Ty Harrington said the team will lose a disciplined worker who does well in life and baseball.

“He’s not like people in the Nike commercials. They only work hard when lots of people are watching,” Harrington said.

Performance on the field is important for Harrington. However, he prefers players to give an extra effort in academics. Witek is not the exception.

“He takes care of school first and foremost,” Harrington said.

The team and Witek will miss each other. Witek is the only player to spend his entire college career with the team.

He takes his last season with maturity.

“Senior year doesn’t really reflect anything other than I’m a little bit older, and I try to play more of a leadership role in the team,” Witek said.

Witek never takes a break. He shows his work ethic during practices, something that impresses coaches and teammates, Harrington said.

During recruiting, Harrington noticed Witek defended well and had an improvable offense.

Witek’s efforts have paid off on the field. He has a .262 batting average with 27 hits and 12 RBIs on the season, making him an asset for the team, Harrington said.

However, Witek acknowledges team accomplishments come first.

“This season we’re starting out pretty good. We’ve had a couple of notable things. We’ve beaten Rice, the No. 1 team.” Witek said. “If you look at that from the perspective of college baseball, you beat the No. 1 team in the nation. It’s just a very special moment whenever you can do something like that because you know you can defeat the best teams in the nation.”

The Bobcats have not won the Southland Conference title since Witek has been with the team. However, he believes the team is now in a good place to aspire such achievement.

“That’d be the base goal of the season. The first goal is to win conference. After that, we’ll go from there,” Witek said.

His father, Rick Witek, got him started in baseball. He said his parents have always been supportive. Witek chose baseball because he thought it was an appropriate sport for him.

“I played all sports growing up, but baseball, I just enjoyed it more than others. Naturally, I excelled a little more in this sport than others,” Witek said. “That had to do with me choosing to play baseball in college.”

Playing for Texas State was an easy choice for Witek. He recalls deciding before the Bobcats recruited him.

“I came here through a camp, and luckily enough, they liked what they saw. They wanted to recruit me,” Witek said. “I just like the school in general. I’ve always had in mind that baseball is just a plus.”

Witek, a native from San Antonio, enjoys the outdoors and decided to major in agricultural business.

“It’s just something that always had interested me, whether it be working on a ranch or working with cows,” Witek said.

Hunting and fishing are some of Witek’s hobbies. Currently, he works on a ranch, which is a job he considers ideal.

“I’m outdoors. I get to work outside. I get to see progress at the end of the day in doing that work,” Witek said.

Career-wise, Witek has a few things lined up in business management positions from different companies.

“I just want an opportunity where I can display my work ethic that I’m able to move up within a company based in the amount of effort I put in,” he said.

Witek will graduate in December, leaving behind his student life and baseball career.

“I’ve had a good run. I’ve been playing for 16 years,” Witek said. “It’s not as fun as it was when I was a kid playing T-ball, but I definitely enjoy every day I get to play in college.”

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