‘Big Country’ A Homegrown Hero For Lake Elsinore Storm

Some Lake Elsinore Storm fans may not realize they have a starting pitcher who grew up and played right in their back yard.

Meet Matt “Big Country” Lollis, a physically imposing but affable and talkative, 6-foot-9, 270-pound right-handed hurler. He possesses a mean fastball that reaches 95 mph – which seems faster thanks to his longer stride and higher release angle. He also owns a slider that can touch in the early 80s, an ever-improving curve ball and a nice changeup.

Lollis’ stuff earned him high praise by Baseball America, as it ranked him sixth on its San Diego Padres preseason prospect rankings. Friarhood.com, a Padres-based website, rates him as the third-best pitching prospect in the entire organization. Lake Elsinore is the Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres

Lollis was born in Riverside, on September 11, 1990, making him among the youngest pitchers in the California League. He was a 15th-round pick in 2009 First-Year Player Draft, just like former Padres great Jake Peavy, out of Riverside Community College.

“It’s nice to be able to play for a hometown team,” Lollis said. “It’d be awesome to play for a California team (in San Diego), have family around. You can live at home, you can sleep in your own bed at night. I have home-cooked meals, the family comes to see you play. When I start, I have 15 to 20 tickets waiting for my family. My mom texts everybody, sees how many they need.”

In a pretty successful first half so far, before Wednesday’s start at home against Lancaster, Lollis is second on the team with three wins (3-4) and first among starters in earned-run average at 4.79. He leads the team with 62 strikeouts and is first in WHIP – walks plus hits per innings pitched - at 1.47.

“It’s a great advantage for me,” Lollis said of his height. “I throw from more of a downhill angle, a steeper angle, toward hitters. It’s a little tough for hitters to get good wood on it.”

Lollis has had a solid stretch after May 23, where he went 1-0 after he fixed a few things with his coaches. He struck out 16, allowed six earned runs and six walks, along with 19 hits in 18 2/3 innings. The need for the adjustment occurred after Lollis was tagged for five earned runs in two straight starts, including May 18 against Inland Empire, which was his worst start this season.

“We tweaked a couple of things mechanically,” Lollis said of working with pitching coach Bronswell Patrick. “We saw a couple things that I’ve cleaned up. Staying back, I had my front foot closed, my hips closed so that I’d throw across my body, instead of allowing my body to work with me. We started working on getting it better, worked on it a little bit at a time. It’s gotten to where it’s 10 times better.”

While Patrick said Lollis’ best pitches are his fastball and slider, his work on his curve has stood out the most thus far.

“He’s got a big-league arm,” Patrick said. “The main thing is he’s cleaned things up a lot, he’s just got to get his mechanics down. He can definitely be a big league pitcher … his curve has really improved. It changes with that front foot. His fastball (goes) down and away for a strike and his slider has gotten better. He’s made great strides.”

Lollis was also invited to compete with the big club as part of the Padres’ Major League camp in Spring Training in Peoria, Ariz. Lollis threw three innings against live major league hitters and felt he did well.

“Big league camp was a great experience for me,” Lollis said. “Older guys like (pitchers) Aaron Harang, Mat Latos showed me the ropes. They showed me how big leaguers work. Everything they do is for a purpose.”

Lollis said he doesn’t know who coined his nickname, but it stuck.

“They have it to me when I signed,” Lollis said. “Everyone thought I was a Nebraska guy, middle of the states, big corn-fed country guy.”

Catcher Jason Hagerty, who works with Lollis in most of his starts, likes Lollis’ improvement as well.

“He’s definitely getting his command back,” Hagerty said. “He did a good job of getting ahead. In his last outing, he was on with all his pitches. He was throwing all of them for strikes. Earlier, he wasn’t always there. He was leaving pitches out over the plate.”

Lake Elsinore interim manager Phil Plantier, a former big league hitter and the team’s hitting coach, also sees the potential in Lollis.

“Matt has a lot of talent and knows how to compete,” Plantier said. “He has the physical talent to play in the big leagues. It’s about learning what he has and using it efficiently. With Matt, it’s less about him adjusting to hitters and more about him doing what he does well. If he does that, the hitters will have to adjust to him. He’s more in a competition with himself.”

The praise continues all the way up into the big league level. Back in spring training, Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley said to Tim Sullivan of The San Diego Union-Tribune, that “from what I’ve seen, he’s very mature baseball-wise. The way he’s been throwing — his delivery and his overall stuff — is very impressive. He also seems to have a very high baseball IQ.”