Kennedy, Christensen off to hot start in prep baseball

Let's just say Austin Christensen is off to a pretty good start to the prep baseball season. OK, a great start.

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior struck out 12 over six shutout innings in a win Monday over Cedar Rapids Prairie in the first round of the Bob Vrbicek Metro Tournament. He also had three hits.

In an 11-5 semifinal victory over Linn-Mar last night at Prairie, the sweet-swinging lefty - who plays right field when he's not on the mound - went 4-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs and a stolen base.

Do the math, and that's 7-for-8, kids. The only out he made was in his very first at-bat.

Of course, it was a line drive.

“Yeah, to center field,” Christensen said. “I'm just seeing the ball very well at the plate right now.”

Christensen is a University of Nebraska commitment, and he said he has gotten a little extra help with his hitting stroke lately, courtesy of a current Nebraska player. That's his brother, Chad, the former Cedar Rapids Washington all-stater who just finished his freshman year with the Cornhuskers.

Chad Christensen was in the stands last night, certainly a very proud brother.

“He's shown me a couple of things he learned at Nebraska,” Austin said.

“(Austin) works at it extremely hard, and it's nice to see that hard work pay off,” said Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer. “It's especially nice to see him do so well with Chad here to watch him play.”

It hasn't been just Christensen offensively for Kennedy so far, either. For instance, Terrell Sykes had two hits last night and B.J. Cunningham an RBI double.

The Cougars have scored 20 runs in two games to start the season. They play Cedar Rapids Xavier in tonight's tourney title game at approximately 7 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“We're taking advantage of our opportunities,” Hoyer said. “And that's exciting.”

Prairie won the opener last night, winning their consolation game against Mount Vernon, 16-2. It's the Hawks against Marion for fifth place tonight.

Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids Washington play for seventh, Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Jefferson for third.