PORT ANGELES — Location, location, location.
Repeating the old real estate mantra also can help baseball pitchers.
For Port Angeles’ hard-throwing right-hander Travis Paynter, improving the location of his pitches produced better results and helped the Roughriders (19-6) make their first trip to state since 2011.
“He really worked on his craft, and [assistant] coach Karl Myers was a big part of that,” Port Angeles head coach Vic Reykdal said.
“Trav had great command as a sophomore and junior; he could throw strikes and knew to keep the ball down in the zone. But his senior year, he could really pick his spots.
“He moved to the next level, where he wasn’t giving in to hitters and still had confidence in himself that if he was down in the count that he could still work that outside corner.”
Paynter finished his senior season with a 7-1 record, a 1.89 ERA and 71 strikeouts. He also was voted All-Olympic League 2A Division first team and played in the West Sound All-Star Game.
Paynter also has been picked as the All-Peninsula Baseball MVP by area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
‘Our horse’
“It’s a good feeling to know that you are running a No. 1 starter out there,” Reykdal said.
“He was just our horse. He had the gas and just worked hard on his offseason stuff.”
Paynter credited two “great mentors” for helping him improve during his high school career: former Riders standout and Texas Rangers minor leaguer Easton Napiontek and Myers, who pitched at Gonzaga.
“I had a lot of help before my sophomore year from Easton Napiontek before he left for spring training,” Paynter said.
“He helped me work on pitches, my throwing motion, and I was able to improve a bunch.
“Once Easton left for pro ball, Myers came to town, so I had great help back-to-back.”
Paynter traced his improvement this year to indoor workouts over the winter.
“We threw quite a bit this offseason,” Paynter said.
“We threw a lot of bullpens and threw them earlier than we had before and I think those workouts helped all of us hit our spots and work on pitches all winter.
“And we spent a lot of time in the weight room. A lot of 6 a.m. workouts that weren’t a lot of fun to go to but definitely helped us improve.
“All the guys that came wanted it. Everybody wanted to be there, nobody complained and everybody worked their butts off.”
Paynter always had a strong fastball to overpower hitters but needed to refine his off-speed pitches to keep batters off-balance.
“My change-up was my biggest thing and we got that to work quite a bit and that really helped me get some more strikeouts,” Paynter said.
“I was able to not have to go fastball, fastball fastball. I could have a change-up and throw something off-speed and get guys to roll over or swinging and missing for strikeouts.
“And Myers had a few techniques to help me gain more speed with my fastball, and those worked as well.
“We would just focus on hitting our spots, getting the ball to the outside corner and not leaving the ball over the middle of the plate.”
Paynter said Myers also empowered the senior-dominated Port Angeles pitching staff to watch for potential pitching problems during games.
“He also had to coach JV, so he missed a lot of our road games,” Paynter said.
“He gave all four seniors that kind of role to look out for each other. We knew what we needed to do to win, and helping each other would make it a lot easier to get there.
“We could tell a guy if they were dropping their shoulder, or making some small mistake.”
Paynter pointed to a late-season game against Olympic as a season highlight.
He went the distance to earn a 4-3 win in eight innings, striking out seven and allowing just three hits and three runs, two of which were unearned.
The win turned the Riders’ late-season contest with North Kitsap into a de facto Olympic League 2A title game.
“That’s probably my favorite memory. That was a big win for us,” Paynter said. “And getting to pitch against Sequim at home under the lights in the pinstripes [retro uniforms] both years, those were a lot of fun, too.”
After visiting some other Northwest Athletic Conference schools his senior year, Paynter was offered a scholarship to play at Lower Columbia College in Longview.
He’ll join a long line of North Olympic Peninsula players who have played for the Red Devils, including former Port Angeles standouts Napiontek, Eric Lane and Cody Sullivan, and Sequim’s Chad Wagner, Ben Grubb and Isaac Yamamoto.
Lane, in fact, is an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Lower Columbia and was in the stands for Paynter’s big win against Olympic.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to join all the good guys from PA that have gone to LCC and be a part of that,” Paynter said.
“I’m excited for the experience. The chance to meet some new guys and play for an established winning program and try to win a championship or two down there. That would be really cool.”
Reykdal feels there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
“He still has growing to do and it will be fun to see where his fastball ends up at the next level and how he progresses there,” Reykdal said.
“He has the tools, the heart and the work ethic. Travis knew he wanted to play at the next level and has put in the work to make sure he got there.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he plays a couple of solid seasons and ends up playing at a four-year university.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 57050 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
