Wood, pitching shine again as Kernels sweep Clinton

CEDAR RAPIDS - The arm is electric. The results have been thus far, too.

Austin Wood's first two starts for the Cedar Rapids Kernels couldn't have been scripted better. It's way early, but the kid looks like an ace.

“It's been fun,” Wood said after his five hitless innings helped his team complete a three-game sweep of Clinton, 3-1, Wednesday night before 703 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I've got to keep going. We're playing really well defensively, hitting the ball well. I'm getting a lot of help.”

Not like he's needed much.

A big fastball that regularly sits in the mid-90s is Wood's best pitch. The right-hander from the University of Southern California (a sixth-round pick in 2011) didn't have a whole lot of command or control Wednesday night but still only walked two and struck out five.

In the season opener against Wisconsin last week, he struck out 10 in five innings and gave up a single run on four hits. He's raw, for sure, but the potential is enticing.

Wood didn't put up strong numbers as a collegiate at Florida State, USC and a junior college, but a big season in the summer Cape Cod League in 2010 upped his professional stock. He signed at the deadline last August 15 and got in only two relief appearances at Rookie-level Orem.

“He's got a strong body, a strong arm, obviously,” said Kernels pitching coach Chris Gissell. “His slider is pretty good, but right now, it's the fastball ... Right now, he just has that overpowering fastball. And we've talked about using that fastball inside and outside. Learning how to use it up (in the zone). Especially in the Midwest League, the first month of the season or so, you've got to pitch inside because guys won't want to swing.”

Wood (2-0), Joe Melioris and Stephen Tromblee combined for eight one-hit shutout innings, but Ty Kelley had to hang on in the ninth to get the save. Clinton (1-5) had the tying runs on base, with Kelley getting pinch-hitter Guillermo Pimentel to fly to the warning track in right field to end it.

Initially, it was believed the Kernels had a no-hitter going to the ninth, but there was a scoring change postgame on a flyball to right by Dan Paolini that tipped the glove of a sliding Ryan Jones in the sixth.

“We've talked about being aggressive and making the hitters hit your pitch,” Gissell said. “They've all done a really good job.”

Jones and Frazier Hall had RBI hits for Cedar Rapids (5-1), which begins a four-game home series against Quad Cities Thursday night.

Here is a copy of the game boxscore:

Scoreboard _ Midwest League Scoreboard

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