Travis Barnett stands tall for SLCC

Early this baseball season several players have emerged as leaders. One of the mainstays on the 24-man roster this year has been Travis Barnett. As the 6-7 closing pitcher for the Bruins, Barnett stands tall on the mound in clutch situations.

Barnett comes to SLCC from Castle Dale, Utah where he prepped at Emery High School. While at Emery, Barnett was a two-sport athlete. Balancing his time between basketball, baseball and school Barnett was named to the All-State and All-Region teams in both sports.

Barnett, who is one of seven sophomores on the SLCC team, worked hard and after high school, he was recruited heavily by CEU. However, the hometown team didn't stand a chance to the effort put in by SLCC's baseball coach DG Nelson.

"We recruited him pretty hard, but if I lose recruits to CEU, I ought to be fired," said Nelson. "We have a much better facility and area to recruit to. We wanted Travis. He was big, tall, threw hard, but a little inconsistent with his arm slot." Because of the inconsistency with the way he positioned his arm, Barnett's coaches transitioned him from a normal pitcher to a submarine pitcher. A submarine pitcher has a different release point than normal pitchers who release up high and at the top of the throw. Instead of releasing high, a submarine pitcher released the ball low; thus the term submarine. This low release helps hide the pitch.

When a batter faces a submarine pitcher it's a totally different look.

"It looks like I'm throwing from third base. They lose it for a little bit," said Barnett.

Barnett played his freshman season at SLCC and then left to serve a two-year LDS mission to Knoxville, Tennessee. Barnett's return to SLCC has been a bit of an adjustment.

"I spent a lot of time in the weight room when I got home," said Barnett. "They let me throw but they wouldn't let me pitch for a couple months after I got home. They kind of babied me I guess you could say. It was weird finding my arm slot again since I throw from a real unorthodox arm slot. It took me a little while to get used to it."

Although Barnett didn't gain a lot of weight on his mission, he lost a lot of muscle.

"I was definitely out of shape. I weighed about 220 lbs. when I got home and I'm sitting about 215, 220 right now. I don't have the fat I've got more muscle now than I did," said Barnett.

The main difference for Barnett this year compared with his freshman year is his control. Because he switched from normal to submarine during that year, he walked a lot of batters.

Nelson says this year has been different.

"I was looking at the league stats the other day, he struck out 15 and walked zero and that's not like him. Before that he used to walk and that was kind of the hang up on him is he would get a little wild, but he's been locating it and going and he'll even admit to you, he just chomps at the bit to get in there."

Now the coaches are putting a lot more trust in the 22-year-old sophomore. "When I put him in the game I expect it to be over," said Nelson. "And I think our whole coaching staff has really kind of engrained him in that."

Barnett has already signed to play on a Division 1 team and like most baseball players he wants to play professional baseball and it doesn't matter where.

"I've already signed with the University of Utah, and it's every guys dream to play pro ball. I'm a Braves fan but I just want to play ball," said Barnett.