Young Engineer Follows Faith to Find Dream in Baseball

When the Colorado School of Mines head coach Robby Bales first saw a lanky lefty throwing in the low-to-mid 80’s out of Broomfield High School, he knew he had something special. No, Walter Pennington wasn’t the fastest throwing 17-year-old the long-time coach had seen. He would have to develop over his college career, but the Colorado-native’s work ethic and attitude was apparent long before Bales made Pennington a team captain his senior year.

“With all the craziness in the world, I think it’s natural for people when they first meet Walter to go, ‘Is this kid for real? Where’s the flaw?’ But that’s just who Walter is.” Coach Bales reiterates, “He has the utmost character, he’s confident in who he is and his faith and he’s just one of those guys who leads by example.”

Through all of Pennington’s success as an Oredigger, the southpaw found himself atop the Colorado School of Mines record book in 13 different categories, including single-season records for innings pitched and wins, he didn’t always consider a career in baseball to be a shoe-in.

It was paramount for the Broomfield Eagle to focus on his education. Yes, the dream was always baseball, but to Pennington, he wanted to get his degree, which he earned in Mechanical Engineering. Pennington wasn’t going to coast through school and earn a “paper weight degree”, he was going to work hard to make sure he had multiple pathways to success.

There was always a lot of success on the baseball field for Pennington. His sophomore year, he recorded a 6-3 record on the mound and hit .284 at the plate with 11 homers in nearly 100 at-bats. There was a series against Sioux Falls March 13-14 where he DHed all three games and hit four homers. That weekend series followed a Wednesday where Pennington uncorked a quality start at CSU-Pueblo. He spun six innings, punched out six batters and allowed three runs to pace the Orediggers to an 11-4 victory.

“My sophomore year, I was still hitting at the time, so I would DH for myself when I was pitching. I was hitting a bunch of homeruns and I had a few shutouts and complete games, playing some of the best baseball I ever played.” Pennington remembers. “But guess what, it got followed by some of the worst baseball I ever played. Strikeouts come. There are games where I couldn’t even get through the first or second inning. Having all of that in the same season taught me so much.”

Through those trials and tribulations, Pennington grew mentally and physically. It helped that he had set himself up so that if baseball did not work out, he had all the tools necessary to become an engineer. One lesson that Coach Bales always tried to instill in the lefty was to trust his stuff.

“He taught me to trust in the abilities I had and he pushed me to learn in that sense. I’m very thankful because I started working with him a bit in high school and he has helped me through this whole transition.” The Coloradoan tells.

It wasn’t until the pitcher’s junior year that he started to see a light at the end of the tunnel where he believed his childhood dream of playing professional baseball was possible.

“It just kind of clicked. When things are going right, you think ‘No one can stop me,’ and that’s when those dreams start flowing.” Walter explains.

When those professional baseball dreams started to pull, life, and Walter’s faith, started pulling him in another direction though. The lefty started a more religious journey and went on a mission trip, rethinking his engineering career and rethinking playing professional baseball. What started as a young man following his faith took him to Puerto Rico, moved him to continue his work at home to help students at the local college campuses find time to reflect on their faith and to help spread his faith for those who may be seeking more.

The missionary started with a sports-orientated trip to an island off the coast of Florida though.

“It was a week-long trip where we really interacted with younger kids. Sports was the overlying, superficial part of the trip, but getting to enjoy the culture of the Puerto Ricans and get to know the people was what inspired me to keep going on this journey.” Pennington relays.

During his time in Puerto Rico, he worked at Parroquia Santa Teresita, a Roman Catholic church in San Juan, on the northern shore of the island. He spent time helping kids on the baseball diamond and inside the church he taught them about the church and had fun drawing pictures and just letting the kids be kids.

Eventually, it was time to leave and return to the baseball diamond though. The Fireflies arm was signed by the Kansas City Royals in August 2020, during a pandemic that left every college senior, from major programs down to smaller programs like the Colorado School of Mines, in doubt about if they would be able to play the game at the next level. He posted on Instagram a few months later, from Surprise, Arizona, where young Royals players meet for Fall Instructional League ball. The post read, “Well, here I am. Thought I was going to be an engineer, then a missionary, then a graduate student, but instead, I’m in AZ living my dream as a professional baseball player.”

Fast forward to today. He’s one of the best arms to come out of the bullpen for the Fireflies. The lefty has fanned 21 batters through 17.1 innings this season and through June 21 has a 1.56 ERA with two saves while holding opponents to a measly .206 batting average.

The Coloradoan remains humble though. He’s thankful each day for his opportunities in baseball. He’s learned to appreciate everything he has after seeing what some of the kids he worked with in Puerto Rico had after the hurricanes of 2018 and 2019. He’s even happy to still use his engineering mind with the pitching coordinators and strength and conditioning coaches when they try to teach what angles and velocities help minimize hard contact. In fact, he wants them to “nerd out” with him a bit. Meanwhile, he gets to live out the dream he’s had since he was a young boy, growing up near the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.