Today@Sam Article

Bearkat Spotlight: Brady Christensen

Feb. 21, 2025
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins

In baseball, a batter can falter seven-out-of-10 times at the plate and still be considered one of the top performers on his team. For Brady Christensen, it was never about how many curveballs life threw at him, but how often he responded.

“One of our main goals as a team is to just win each inning,” said Christensen, a senior outfielder on Sam Houston State University’s baseball team. “You have to take it one inning and one pitch at a time, because winning the small things eventually leads to winning the big things.”

Growing up in Elkhorn, Nebraska, Christensen credits his parents with encouraging his athletic aspirations from his earliest stages of life.

“We noticed I had a knack for hitting. When I was in tee-ball, I wanted to have someone throw pitches to me. During coach pitch, I wanted to hit off of real players,” he said. “Eventually, I ended up playing with the same select travel team from ages seven to 14.”

Christensen was well on his way to becoming a reputable force in the Nebraska high school baseball scene before tearing his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), which is located on the inner side of the elbow and connects the upper arm to the lower arm, prior to his sophomore campaign.

“That summer, I was supposed to go down to Jupiter, Florida for a showcase in front of a number of schools, so that really hurt my recruiting process,” he said. 

This misfortune continued into his junior season, which was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite losing critical reps, he put together an impressive senior campaign and earned a spot in an international matchup for amateurs at the historic Fenway Park in Boston.

“I gained a little bit of attention there because I was the new kid on the block from Nebraska that no one had really heard about,” Christensen said. “All of the scouts wondered why I hadn’t committed yet and figured it would be good for me to play at the junior college level if I wasn’t ready to go the four-year route.”

Despite an offer from Wichita State University, where current SHSU head baseball coach Jay Sirianni’s brother served as recruiting coordinator at the time, Christensen ultimately landed at Iowa Western Community College after high school. He then moved south to Texas for the first time to join San Jacinto College’s squad.

“There was a complete downpour about 20 minutes before my first practice,” he said. “I wasn’t used to the humidity, so I literally could not throw the baseball because my hands were too sweaty to grip it.”

Christensen eventually adjusted to the weather, but did not have the spring campaign he was hoping for at San Jacinto. Following a summer league stint with the Victoria Generals of the Texas Collegiate League, he returned home believing his baseball career was over.

“Victoria’s coach, Michael Oros, had played at Sam Houston State years ago. He knew they had reached out to me before and that I was still uncommitted for the upcoming season,” Christensen said. “I remember talking on the phone with Coach Sirianni, who said they were going to give me a shot as a walk-on. They gave me that opportunity, so I took it and ran with it.”

The faith he felt from SHSU’s coaching staff was enough for him to accept the opportunity before even setting foot in Huntsville.

“It was like a second life,” Christensen said. “They reinstalled that confidence and gave me a chance to prove myself. It changed the entire course of my career.”

As a result, Christensen joined the senior-heavy Bearkat squad in 2024 and battled against some of the top competition in the country. He appeared in 36 games for the team, starting 27, and posted a .280 batting average with 18 runs batted in. Primarily an outfielder, he was eager to go wherever he was needed most, which sometimes included first base and designated hitter.

“Me and a few other guys would come in during certain situations where the coaches thought we would have some success. I enjoyed that role as much as when I got to start,” he said. “We were all a close, tight-knit family. Everyone was really supportive of one another.”

SHSU’s current roster looks quite a bit different than the one that featured 18 seniors a season ago. This time around, despite battling another injury sustained in his final fall matchup, Christensen has fallen in line as one of the team’s leaders as they take the field in 2025.

“I have always tried to lead by example more than word. I go about what I do every day with as much professionalism as possible,” he said. “I enjoy teaching some of the freshman outfielders certain nuances of the game, like taking deeper drop steps and better routes to the ball, general stuff like that.”

Christensen is currently earning his undergraduate degree in business administration. He may opt to use a remaining year of eligibility to stay with the team in 2026 and pursue his Master’s of Business Administration (MBA).

The Bearkats opened their new campaign in mid-February. View the team’s entire 2025 schedule here. 

“We are a very scrappy team. The offense picks up the pitching staff when needed, and vice versa,” Christensen said. “We expect to compete with anybody we play with.”

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