The Power of Belief: Will Glatch's Path from Setbacks to Standout Reliever

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Following a nightmare 2024 season, senior right-handed pitcher Will Glatch had one goal on his mind as fall ball started: making the team.

Although he had been performing well in bullpens as the fall progressed, Glatch felt the doubt creep back in as he prepared to pitch in his first intrasquad scrimmage. With the pressure starting to mount, a routine outing turned into a bumpy performance, putting Glatch's confidence and belief in himself back on life support.

Shortly after, first-year pitching coach Sean Snedeker approached a troubled Glatch and told him, "I have all of the faith in the world in you and think that you're completely capable and can really help this team out, but you have to believe in yourself. You have to trust in yourself and your ability to do it."

A brief yet powerful conversation between the two flipped a switch inside Glatch; he had finally realized what had been holding him back for so long.

"With the words Sned instilled in me there, I finally said, 'I'm going to put the results up to God and let Him handle it.' If I can just go there and perform to the best of my ability and be confident, the results will be left up to Him."

Glatch dominated the rest of the fall and across his first three regular-season appearances, he allowed just three base runners through 4.2 scoreless frames and totaled four punchouts. Roughly three weeks into the spring, Glatch had cemented himself as the go-to arm out of the bullpen for head coach Mitch Thompson's squad. 

Following 2.2 perfect innings in a series-opening win against Loyola Marymount on March 7, Glatch was asked about the significance of earning the coaching staff's trust not just to be able to pitch on weekends but also to pitch in the biggest moments — something that was entirely out of the picture last year.

All the emotions from the last 12 months flooded back for a second, and Glatch seemed a bit choked up before recapturing his composure, "It's been a lot of fun," he said. "It's been a lot of fun so far. I'm happy I can be a part of this team and help us continue to keep winning games, get to our common goal of winning series and keep this train rolling."

At this point last year, it was a completely different story. Glatch's season had already come to a close, not because of injury but instead due to immense struggles on the mound. 

In five appearances, he had totaled only three innings and had surrendered six earned runs, four walks and eight hits, three of which were for extra bases. His earned run average ballooned to 18.00, and his last outing came late in a blowout loss to Cincinnati on March 28.

For the rest of the 2024 season, Glatch was relegated to the dugout. During that tumultuous time, he lost his confidence and the joy of playing baseball.

"It was a very, very tough experience for me last year," Glatch said in a sit-down interview with SicEm365. "It was the hardest thing I've had to go through, just not being able to help the team on the field. I was dictating happiness solely from the sport and the results of what was happening on the field, and it made me definitely take a step back and evaluate that I am more than baseball."

Before tasting failure last spring, athletic success had always come relatively easily to Glatch. He had played baseball since he was three years old and starred as a two-sport athlete at Frisco Liberty High School, where he was doubling as the team's quarterback and middle linebacker. During baseball season, Glatch showcased his natural abilities on the diamond, mostly playing catcher and third base.

After the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the majority of Glatch's junior season at Frisco Liberty, he had made up his mind that he was going to hang up the spikes — and the cleats — and become a full-time student at Baylor, the alma mater of his parents, Bill and Luann.

Entering the spring of his senior year, his baseball coaches approached him and told him they needed help on the mound. Despite playing quarterback, Glatch had never really tried his hand at pitching but was happy to help out his team. 

"I ended up catching on Tuesdays and pitching on Fridays; it was really healthy at the time," Glatch said jokingly. "I figured out that I was somewhat decent at pitching."

His recruiting started to pick up as he posted a 1.18 ERA while also hitting .317 with six home runs and 42 RBIs. Glatch was named the District 9-5A MVP, but he was still deadset on ditching his athletic career until he had a conversation with Thompson, the head coach at McLennan Community College.

Thompson told him, "You can be a student at Baylor whenever you want, but baseball's not forever. It's always going to be there for you to be a student, but you should continue playing as long as you can."

Glatch took his advice and enrolled at MCC. He originally came as a two-way player but ultimately settled as a pitcher-only. Across two seasons at McLennan, he collected over 60 strikeouts in 47 innings.

"One of the hardest things I had to do was actually just focus on pitching and then not being able to help the team out every single inning because that's all I knew," Glatch said. "Playing football and baseball in high school, I was always on the field, and that was a really big adjustment for me. I was playing every position in baseball, so I never really specialized in something."

He continued, "You're very important to the team as a pitcher, but you're only going to pitch a number of innings per season, so I had to wrap my head around that. I finally had that opportunity to just focus on pitching and have a weight lifting schedule dedicated to pitching. I think it showed me what my potential can actually be if I specialize in something."

Following a successful sophomore campaign where he earned Second-Team All-Conference honors with a 2.42 ERA, Glatch rejoined Thompson, who had left for Baylor after Glatch's freshman season at MCC.

"The way that things worked out with Coach Thompson getting the job here and that I had an in at Baylor, which was my dream school and where I wanted to be, I think it's completely and totally God's plan that He had for me," Glatch said. "I'm honestly amazed by how it has all played out."

But when things didn't go as planned to start 2024 and Glatch had allowed six hits and five earned runs while only recording one out in his first two appearances out of the bullpen, all of his built-up mojo from his time at McLennan had dissipated.

"Last year, I was not there mentally at all," he said. I had those first two outings and lost all my confidence. It was nobody's fault other than mine. When you get beaten that bad, you are like, 'Geez.' It made me question, 'Am I good?' That was a tough process."

After riding the pine for the entirety of April and May, Glatch told Thompson in the exit meeting, at the end of the year, "I'm coming back. I have no plan on leaving. Baylor is my home and it's where I want to be. I'm going to show you that I will be better, and I will get better."

With no future roster spot promised, Glatch returned home to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and played in the North Texas Five Tool Collegiate Summer League. Over the summer months, Glatch started to get a taste of the success that had eluded him for much of the 2024 season and began to find the joy in playing baseball again.

When he returned to Baylor for the fall semester, Glatch immediately grabbed the attention of Snedeker, who had spent over 18 years coaching at the collegiate level at Duke, Oral Roberts and Lamar.

"When I came in, he was one of the first guys that caught my eye because he was physical, he had velocity, a plus-slider and a plus-split," Snedeker told SicEm365. "I went to Coach Thompson and said, 'I think Glatch is going to be one of our dudes. He's throwing the ball really well.'"

As Glatch and Snedeker continued to work together, Glatch noticed a change within. He began to believe in himself again as he performed at an extremely high level throughout the fall.

"He's always said since the first time he saw me throw that he was a believer in me," Glatch said of Snedeker. "Having him in my corner has really, really helped me out tremendously on the field. I truly credit him, especially for helping me gain all of my confidence back."

Snedeker added, "From the jump, he is one guy who has been incredibly consistent from the day we started in the fall all the way up until right now. He's been really, really good. I've never seen him any other way. I've never seen the Will Glatch that struggled last year. I've seen the incredibly talented and incredibly consistent guy since I've known him."

Glatch bought into everything Snedeker taught him and carried that momentum into the season. He started the year with 1.2 scoreless frames from the bullpen on Opening Day against Youngstown State.

"It was like I was back at McLennan just with the confidence I had," Glatch said. "Confidence takes you so much farther than your own ability. If you have all of the confidence in the world and think you're better than the person you're going against, it's going to take you a lot further."

Through 10 appearances this season, Glatch is second on the team in ERA (1.00), WHIP (0.67) and batting average against (.159). He has a remarkable strikeout-to-walk ratio of 19-to-2 and has pitched the second-most innings (18) out of the bullpen.

"The only goal I set for myself was first to make the team; since then, it was to have the most fun that I could," Glatch said. "It's been awesome to be relied on. It's been awesome to keep helping this team win games and change the culture here. I'm blessed that I have the opportunity to do it."

Along with Snedeker, Glatch credits his faith for getting him through last season's struggles. When times were at their darkest, he leaned on God to be his rock, consistently telling himself to "live by faith, not by sight."

"That was a big turning point for me in my faith because at first, going through it, it was very, very challenging for me, but I continued to have faith in God and His plan for me. I continued to trust in Him," Glatch said.

He added, "I had to find an identity in something other than baseball. Things are going well for me on the diamond currently, but even if things weren't going well, I'd still know that I'm valued by God. He does not see me as a baseball player. He loves me, and I have teammates and family that love me, and it doesn't matter how I'm doing. It gives you a different viewpoint. Hard work doesn't always equal success, but you have to continue pushing and trying as hard as possible, leaving the results and plan up to God and trusting in Him."

Glatch and the Bears (20-8, 4-5) will continue their five-game homestand this weekend against Houston (16-12, 3-6). The series opener is set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 4, and will be streamed on ESPN+.

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