Wood Inks National Letter

ROGERS HERITAGE PITCHER TO JOIN HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL JUNIOR COLLEGE PROGRAM

Hunter Wood, a student at Rogers Heritage High School, signs paperwork on Wednesday for his baseball scholarship to Howard College in Big Spring, Texas. With Wood are, front row from left, Holly DeBacco, sister; Danielle Wood, sister; Trent Wood, dad; nephew Cade DeBacco and his mom, Melanie Woods. Behind them are Howard College baseball coach J. Bob Thomas, left, and Rogers Heritage baseball coach Keith Kilgore.
Hunter Wood, a student at Rogers Heritage High School, signs paperwork on Wednesday for his baseball scholarship to Howard College in Big Spring, Texas. With Wood are, front row from left, Holly DeBacco, sister; Danielle Wood, sister; Trent Wood, dad; nephew Cade DeBacco and his mom, Melanie Woods. Behind them are Howard College baseball coach J. Bob Thomas, left, and Rogers Heritage baseball coach Keith Kilgore.

— Hunter Wood has yet to visit the Howard College campus in Big Spring, Texas. That did not stop the Rogers Heritage pitcher from signing a letter of intent to attend the junior college west of Abilene.

He was sold on the Hawks winning tradition and the fact the school regularly sends its players to Division I programs and to Major League Baseball franchises. Last year, 12 players moved on to play for Division I programs.

Howard is 154-24 over the past three seasons, including 63-1 in 2009 while winning the National Junior College World Series.

“Howard always sets their goals real high and they have high standards,” Wood said. “That is going to help me a lot, I know it’s going to be a good experience.”

He also hit it off with Howard assistant coach J. Bob Thomas. Thomas was on hand to watch Wood sign his letter of intent on Wednesday.

“When we talked on the phone, we hardly talked about baseball,” Wood said. “We talked about hunting, or how school was going. It was stuff like that. The other coaches that I talked with would just hammer you about baseball.”

Wood was 9-1 last season with a 2.49 ERA. In his two seasons in a Heritage uniform, he has 19 wins and 190 strikeouts.

Howard was 46-13 last season, including 26-6 in conference play. Coach Britt Smith has an overall record of 350-111 and said he is excited to have Wood in a Howard uniform.

“We couldn’t be more excited,” Smith said. “Hunter is exactly the type of guy we look for. He is athletic and has a good arm. He has a chance to really improve. Obviously, with our track record, that is what we are known for. We’ve had kids come here as 34th rounders out of high school and go to the 60th overall pick. That’s from a $75,000 offer to right at a $1 million offer.”

Wood said he would also like to be a position player when he’s not pitching. He hit .422 with 28 RBIs last season. Smith said he would get that chance.

“Anybody that is a two-way player that wants to give the effort to go two ways, we give them that opportunity,” Smith said. “We never pick it for them. The players realize they have to focus on one or the other. We have some pitchers that come in and really want to hit, and we let them do it.”

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