Strategic change

LIMA - Lima Central Catholic left-hander Travis Kottenbrock winds, kicks and delivers.

It looks like a fastball when it leaves Kottenbrock's left hand.

Suddenly, the ball has the look of a car backfiring its way down Elida Road. It nearly screeches to a halt before it nose dives and creeps across the plate at knee level.

The batter weakly waves at the pitch like he's attempting to swat down a pesky mosquito.

That's the power of Kottenbrock's circle change-up. It can make a batter look silly.

The 6-foot senior lefty helped LCC to the Northwest Conference championship last season. This year he has the T-Birds at 7-0 in the NWC, 11-8 in overall.

"He's a bulldog," LCC coach John Schnieders said. "He can change speeds and everything is near the plate. So even if it's a ball, a lot of times they're chasing it.

"He's as good as we've had and I'm real proud of what he's accomplished thus far. We're going to ride him as long as we can this year."

Kottenbrock features a fastball that ranges from the low 80s to close to 85 mph. He also has a breaking ball, slider and change-up. And he can throw them all for strikes.

Kottenbrock stands 6-0 with a 0.62 earned-run average. In 45 innings, he's given up 31 hits. He's struck out 71 and amazingly has walked only one.

"The most impressive thing is the way he pounds the strike zone," LCC catcher Josh Runda said. "Every time he comes out, your team has a good shot at winning the game. And he'll throw strikes for you and put you in a situation to win.

"We have confidence when all our pitchers are pitching, but Travis gives us an extra boost when he's out on the mound."

Kottenbrock began experimenting with the change-up in the sixth grade. It's a pitch he now uses quite a bit. In a recent 4-2 complete-game victory over Paulding, he threw 89 pitches, 58 for strikes. He estimated he threw about 15 change-ups.

"When I was in sixth grade, my dad and I sat down and watched some pitching tapes," Kottenbrock said. "I'm obviously left-handed and colleges love left-handers so starting in sixth grade we began to watch videos and that's when I learned the circle change."

The pitch didn't come easy at first.

"My freshman year I had troubles with it," Kottenbrock said. "I used to throw it all over the place, but I went to camps at Toledo and West Virginia and they told me just hold your change-up in the outfield when you're just warming up and you'll get used to throwing your change-up and that's key."

Former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Gene Stechschulte, from Kalida, is a big advocate of the change-up. That's just one part of Kottenbrock's game that he likes.

"I think one of the first things I notice about Kottenbrock is his mound presence," Stechschulte said. "You can tell he believes in what he is doing and has the confidence in every pitch he throws. He can also throw more than one pitch for a strike at any point. The key to his change-up is that he doesn't give it away by changing his mechanics."

Kottenbrock also played basketball for the T-Birds.

"Actually, basketball is my favorite, by far," he said. "To step on a court in front of thousands of people at LCC's gym, it's always a big atmosphere, especially in front of Northwest Conference rivals.

"When I get older, if I don't pursue baseball as a career, I'd like to become a basketball coach. But baseball has always been my key since I'm left-handed."

Kottenbrock plans on pitching in college and is currently looking at Marietta and Olney Central College (Ill.).

No matter where he ends up, he'll bring his change-up with him.

"I can feel that I throw a little bit harder (this year), but faster really isn't the key to pitching," Kottenbrock said. "It's all about placement and that's what I've tried to do the past three years."