Not-so-big Goodrum comes up with big walk-off hit

CEDAR RAPIDS - His father is a big guy. He figures about 6-foot-3 and 285 pounds.

But Niko Goodrum? Not nearly so much.

At least not yet.

"When I signed, I was probably about 170, 175 pounds," the Cedar Rapids Kernels shortstop said, after his walk-off single gave his club a dramatic 3-2 win over Beloit Friday night before 1,026 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. "I'm about 220 now. As you grow and get older, you gain weight and strength. You can tell a big difference from it."

Goodrum is a lanky 6-foot-4, and some think the 21-year-old second-round pick of the Twins in 2010 will outgrow shortstop. He's looked pretty good there in two games this season, and looked great at the plate in the ninth inning, lining a 1-0 pitch from reliever Stu Pudenz into right field to score Travis Harrison with the winning run.

Harrison's preceding double to the gap in right-center scored pinch runner Candido Pimentel to tie it.

"I crowded the plate and looked for a fastball," Goodrum said. "Fastball in or fastball middle. Just going to drive him in by any means."

"He's got a lot of tools," Kernels manager Jake Mauer said. "He's a talented individual. It's something we talk about. He's still young, but when he finishes developing, he's going to be a pretty big man physically. He's got hands, and he's got actions at shortstop. He can move around good, runs good for a big man. I saw him as a young kid in instructional league, and I liked him. He's just starting to develop, I think. Starting to hit his stride."

You could characterize this game by saying the Kernels (2-0) began well and ended well offensively. In between was a whole lot of nothing against Beloit reliever Dakota Bacus, a Quad Cities native with a nice breaking ball who shut them out and struck out nine over five innings.

Byron Buxton led off the first with a long home run to left against Beloit starting pitcher Michael Ynoa that landed on 8th Ave. SW and onto the roof of a house across the street from the ballpark on one hop. It was an at-bat of about $10.25 million, considering Buxton's $6-million signing bonus last year and Ynoa's $4.25 million by the Athletics in 2008 out of the Dominican Republic.

The oft-injured Ynoa had an encouraging three-inning start in which he gave up just Buxton's hit and two walks, striking out one. Beloit scratched for a run against Kernels starter Hudson Boyd and another in the eighth against reliever Steve Gruver that looked as if it would be enough.

But D.J. Hicks greeted Pudenz with a lined single to right, beginning all the ninth-inning fun.

"That Bacus was tough," Mauer said. "He just abused us. A good slider, enough of a fastball. He had that confidence a little bit out there."

"Their pitcher had a good day," Goodrum said. "You've got to give credit to him. But we turned it on when we needed to."

Goodrum went 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs in C.R.'s season-opening win over Beloit on Thursday night. He hit .275 for Rookie-level Elizabethton in 2011 but only .242 in a return trip to the Appalachian League last season.

He went back to Rookie ball in large part to switch defensively from second base to shortstop.

"It wasn't disappointing. I knew I had some things to work on," he said. "It was a chance to get better ... It was a learning experience. Shortstop is my primary position. I can play all of them, but shortstop was my primary position (growing) up, so that's what I'm comfortable with."

The teams play the third game of their four-game series Saturday afternoon at 2:05.

Here is the game boxscore: