East Peoria, Ill. - Illinois Central College head baseball coach Brett "Bear" Kelley has helped another player reach the ranks of professional baseball as former Cougar RHP/1B Travis Lutz was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 17th round of Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft on Sunday.
"We are absolutely thrilled for Travis and his family," said Kelley, who has mentored 15 of the 17 Cougars who have reached the professional level. "He's a great example of the kind of player we target: he's talented, but works hard in the weight room and even harder in the classroom.
"He makes it easy to root for him to have success!"
Lutz finished his collegiate career at Lamar University in Texas. He arrived at Lamar as part of one of D1baseball.com's best 2025 transfer classes alongside fellow former Cougars Beau Durbin (MIF, Morton HS) and Gage Burdick (LHP, Dixon HS). Lutz went 4-3 in 16 appearances for the Cardinals with 2 saves and a 3.26 ERA. Lamar went 34-27 overall and won the Southland Conference to advance to the NCAA tournament.
For his efforts, Lutz was named the Newcomer of the Year by Southland Conference coaches all well as all-conference and all-tournament as well. Most impressively, he earned Academic All-American honors.
After earning All-Area honors at nearby Limestone High School, Lutz spent just one season with the Cougars in 2021-22. After running his fastball up to 93 mph in a Fall scrimmage against Bradley University, he accepted an offer from Bradley to join the Braves for his sophomore season. Kelley calls it his "1-and-Done" program.
"(Recruiting Coordinator Ben Diggle) and I came up with it after talking to Todd Coryell, who's a regional scout with the San Francisco Giants," said Kelley, who has helped a dozen Cougars move on after just one year. "Does it hurt us, yeah it probably does, but it's not about what's best for us, it's about what's best for the kids.
"Travis took the opportunity and ran with it."
Lutz moved on to Bradley University for three seasons before taking advantage of a federal judge's ruling that gave all NJCAA athletes in 2022 an extra year of eligibility. He used that extra year of eligibility at Lamar.
"We started to get calls from scouts around April 1 that he was really pitching well," Kelley said. "Since (Diggle) bird dogs for the Reds, he got a call from his boss, Andy Stack, asking some background questions that teams typically want answered before they draft a player and that's when we knew it was a real possibility for Travis."
Lutz becomes the second active Cougar in pro ball, joining 2015 alum Mason McCoy, who is a member of the San Diego Padres organization.
