Hunter Locke '22 Recruiting Profile

Going into high school I was small, only 5'6" and around 120 pounds.  Up to this point I was primarily a catcher, but because of my size, the coaches wanted me working at 2nd base.  I learned a hard lesson that year when I ended up not making the team after spending the fall getting to know my potential teammates.  I spent the next few months leading up to my Sophomore year working with coaches and getting better at 2nd base as well as building my skills as a potential pitcher.  By the time tryouts came around my Sophomore year I had grown to 6' and weighed in at 175 pounds.  My skills as a pitcher had grown as well and I felt confident that was the position I was meant to play.  I know my academics are not where they should be.  I was diagnosed with ADD inattentive when I was 8 years old and that has been a struggle for me in school.  I chose to not accept academic accommodations when I entered 8th grade because I wanted to learn how to overcome the challenges on my own.  This struggle with ADD that makes remembering to turn my work in a struggle in school actually helps me when I am playing baseball.  When I am pitching my brain doesn't have the time to focus on the outside noise and it just allows my muscle memory to do the work.  This is one of the reasons why I prefer to pitch quickly.  The more time I have between pitches, the more my mind thinks about what I am doing and that can mess me up.  When I let my body take over, I find that I am more successful.  I recently started studying Tim Hudson's mechanics because I feel like our size, style, and approach is similar.