Washington alum reflects on first season as Hawkeye

Many high school athletes dream about playing a particular sport at the next level.

That was the case for Washington native Elijah Wood. He just completed his first season on the University of Iowa baseball team and he said it was exciting.

?I?m glad I got to be a part of it when they won the Big Ten tournament for the first time in school history,? he said.

As the team advanced further into the postseason, media coverage increased, adding to the excitement.

One game, a 7-5 13-inning win over Minnesota at the Big Ten tournament, stands out,

?That was super exciting,? Wood said. ?It was a great ballgame to be in and with the crazy plays.?

One thing Wood noted was the rivalries between other schools, similar to ones during the football season.

?Going into the tournament, we were the fifth seed,? he said. ?We were kind of the underdog and then we ended up winning. Then when we went to the (NCAA) regionals, we took out the No. 1 seed.

?It was a really good thing for the ballclub in general. It had never been done before in school history and we actually showed that we can compete with the best in the country. That?s what coach [Rick] Heller stresses.?

The more Iowa won, the less stress the team felt.

?I don?t think it bothered us at all,? Wood said. ?We obviously knew about it and everything, but like Coach Heller tells us ?stay in the tunnel and stick to the process and it will be fine.? That?s what we basically do. We just stick to the same approach.?

At the regional tournament, Wood said the Hawkeyes definitely were the outsiders.

?We?re in Texas playing Texas teams and every time we played the stands were full and they didn?t want us to win,? he said. ?The Houston fans were pretty rough. But, it was still a really good experience playing in front of large crowds this year.?

Playing in front of the larger crowds was definitely an eye-opening experience.

?We would have like 30 people in the stands in high school and I went to Nebraska for a regular-season game and there was like 7,000 people there and it was on TV,? he said. ?It was a really awesome deal. The atmosphere and everything was really nice.?

Now that this season has ended, Wood and the other Hawkeye underclassmen are focusing on next year,

?As a team, we?re going to lose some guys in the draft this year,? he said. ?We?re probably not going to have Jake Adams after this year. He was the No. 1 slugger in the Big Ten for us. He?s probably going to get drafted pretty high in the rounds this year. I?m really excited for him.

?We?re going to be getting new guys, so we?ll all have to fight for a spot. Coach Heller told me at an exit meeting that ?we?ll have to fight for our spot on the team. You have new guys coming, you?ll have to fight for your spot again.? So I will be fighting to get that spot back. We will have to keep working as a team and we should be good next year.?

To earn his position on the team next year, Wood will have to be focused.

?I end up being a starter on the team toward the end of the season,? he said. ?The coaches told me I need to work on consistency. As the season went on I started to be a little inconsistent.

?When I first started, I could compete at this level, so I sort of got too relaxed. I have some things I need to work on this summer. I need to get more consistent and belt some different pitches.?

Washington Coach Nathan Miller said he was proud to have Wood as part of the Demons.

?When they see him on TV they talk about him,? Miller said. ?He was a solid pitcher for us. His freshman and sophomore years, he was a closer. We?d give our starters four or five innings and he?d come in and shut the door.

?In his junior and senior years, he was our ace. He was a fantastic high school pitcher. He?s an example of what our guys and future ballplayers all the way down to youth are seeing him play at that level.

?There?s Division I and then there?s that next level of Division I and he?s obviously playing at that next level with being at a Big Ten school. He?s a great example for a lot of our guys to set their goals for and we?re proud of him for what he?s been able to do for us in the past but also for that motivation factor for giving our youth kids something to dream for.?

As Wood gets ready to move into his senior year, he is proud he?s been able to represent Washington on the bigger scale.

?I always wanted to do this in high school,? he said. ?I was one of those kids that wanted to do it. To be one of them that actually did it is nice.

?It feels good to be able to come from Washington.?