CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – For the second consecutive season, Jacksonville State's Travis Stout has been named to the National Stopper of the Year Award list, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association announced on Tuesday.

Stout, who was recently named a Preseason Second Team All-America by the same organization, is among 37 players named to the watch list for the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball. 

Twenty-five of the 37 players on the watch list notched double-digit saves last season.  Stout is one of those 25 players as he recorded 15 in 2014, which ranked second on the program's single-season saves list.  He set the school record with 17 saves during the 2013 season.  Stout helped the Gamecocks make a remarkable run through the 2014 OVC Tournament to claim the Tournament Championship with four saves in the seven games in the OVC Tournament, where he did not allow a single hit in six innings on the mound.  As a junior last year, he allowed just eight earned runs in 39.2 innings with 29 strikeouts, while he posted a 1.82 earned run average.  Stout enters this year with 32 career saves, just three shy of the OVC all-time record, which is owned by former Austin Peay closer Tyler Rogers.
 
The 2015 Stopper of the Year watch list will be updated with a midseason release the week of April 20, including the national saves leaders. At the conclusion of the regular season, the Division I national saves leader and four other relief pitching standouts will be selected as finalists and released Wednesday, June 3, prior to start of NCAA Super Regional competition.
 
JSU opens the 2015 campaign next week against Youngstown State in the first of a three-game series at Rudy Abbott Field. Season tickets are available by calling the JSU Athletic Ticket Office at 256-782-8499 or visit JSUGamecockSports.com.