Luke Davenport
Right-Handed Pitcher, High School
About a year ago, Luke Davenport started to think about putting in some extra work to hone his skills on the mound. He could tell he was on the cusp of a breakthrough – the tall right-hander had trained with his Alabama high school team, played travel ball, and sought out individual pitching coaches.
Those made him a really good high school pitcher, one who touched the mid-80s periodically and got a lot of outs on the mound. Davenport wanted to be great, though. He wanted an extra push. He wanted to throw in the 90s and be unhittable.
That’s why he and his dad started researching Driveline.
“Me and my dad had a discussion about doing something beyond what we do at the high school level, beyond travel ball,” Davenport said. “We decided we wanted to try something else and get some different viewpoints. We decided on Driveline because it’s first in its field with the next-level pitching training.”
Up through his sophomore year, Davenport sat 81-82 and touched 86 with his fastball. He complemented the heater with a pair of breaking balls that looked too similar.
With the goal of pitching D1 college ball and the work ethic to match, it was just about finding the right training to make the jump from low-80s to low-90s.
“I wanted to see what I was capable of and not have any regrets…Go through this year and just do everything I can,” Davenport said. “Work my butt off for a whole year so I can look back and really see what I’m capable of, because a lot can happen when you put your head down and work.”
In June of 2022, he and his dad flew out to Seattle to get motion captured at Driveline and learn about the facility’s onboarding practices.
His motion capture showed Davenport is a smooth mover, and Driveline trainer Eddie Yost was excited with the potential the young right-hander showed. But for as smooth as Davenport moved, he needed to get the whole operation moving faster. Yost implemented a slower, 12-week on-ramping with Davenport that helped him get used to working with Driveline’s PlyoCare Balls and the drills they prescribed.
The Davenports flew back to Alabama shortly after, and the results from his online training started coming quickly.
“I took my time with him, because I knew he was still kind of young,” Yost said. “I knew he had a lot of upside to work with, so I didn’t want to throw him into the fire right away. But it seemed like when he figured things out and was really starting to get used to the plyos and starting to move his body faster, things really took off for him.”
Davenport’s work ethic was put to the test. Yost programmed three high-intensity workouts and lifts each week, plus his throwing. The two are in constant communication and Yost is available whenever Davenport has a question about a drill, or the breaking balls the two worked to separate during his time in Seattle.
Davenport singled out his PlyoCare Ball rocker throws specifically as a drill that has influenced his velocity growth.
“That’s definitely helped me a lot because Coach Yost has talked to me a lot about how my pelvic rotation was too late in my throw,” he said. “And those rocker throws really fire those hips early and gets them moving early in the throw.”
With his new quick-firing hips, Davenport is now sitting 87-89 mph with his fastball during his starts for James Clemens High School, and touched 90 mph for the first time this spring. He’s also throwing both a 12-6 curveball and sweeping slider now.
All of his work has culminated in a couple of milestones: a 17-strikeout no-hitter this spring was one (in a seven-inning game, no less), and was preceded by a commitment to pitch at his dream school, Auburn.
“The training] has really paid off this season,” he said. “I’ve done really well to start the season. The results are just incredible. The difference between this time last year and right now, I’m two different pitchers, basically.”