Indiana University Athletics
Wood Emerging With Young Pitching Staff
2/26/2016 9:41:00 AM | Softball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Josie Wood didn't need much coaxing from Indiana's coaches to join the Hoosiers' pitching staff.
She knew she wanted to be a Hoosier.
"It's home to me," the Denver, Ind., native said. "It's just something you can't explain…I kind of had my heart set here, but I kept my options open. As soon as I knew they really, really wanted me, I had to come here."
Wood hasn't wasted much time making an impact in Bloomington. The southpaw was named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week Monday after picking up a pair of wins at the Panther Invitational. During the tournament, she tossed 20.2 innings, striking out 16 and allowing just three earned runs.
Wood's early emergence is a welcome sign for an Indiana pitching staff still looking to establish an identity in the early weeks of the non-conference season.
She leads the Hoosiers' with a 2.60 ERA over four starts and a team-high 35 innings pitched. Fellow freshman Tara Trainer shouldered the bulk of the remaining time in the circle with a 2.96 ERA over 23.2 innings of work.
"The truth of the matter is the first weekend, Tara had a better weekend," head coach Michelle Gardner said. "Then last weekend, Josie was just fantastic for us. I'm just waiting for them to put it all together because I know what they're capable of. It's just when you get into the first realms of playing Division I, you just never know what you're going to get."
In Wood, Gardner has gotten a workhorse with a powerful arm capable of hanging in the mid-60 mph range on the radar gun. In Indiana's extra-innings win against Holy Cross, Wood pitched all 12 innings, tying the fifth-most for a single pitcher at Indiana in a single outing.
In that outing, Wood faced 44 Holy Cross batters, allowing just one run and striking out 10 without giving any free passes. Beginning in the ninth inning, she retired 11 batters in a row before senior catcher Kelsey Dotson cashed in for her pitcher with a walk-off home run in the 12th inning.
"Josie works extremely hard and just goes out and does her job," Gardner said. "She wants to win. She's one of those kids who wants the ball in her hand when the game is on the line."
The transition to the collegiate level hasn't come without its growing pains.
Wood said she's still adjusting to not being able to blow past batters with her velocity alone like she could in high school. She's also still getting used to facing lineups where anyone who steps into the box is as dangerous as most of the best batters she was used to facing as a prep pitcher.
"You have to keep batters off balance at this level," she said. "Something I've been working on is getting my movement up and trying to increase the speed on my movement pitches, changing up my speeds. Just things I can do to add more to my pitches."
Meanwhile, Wood said she's still developing chemistry on the mound with Trainer and sophomore Emily Kirk. All three know they're going to be asked to eat up innings throughout the season despite having just 75.1 career innings combined, making them the least experienced pitching staff in the Big Ten.
"We've got each other's' backs," Wood said. "We're all just kind of working together and getting better as it goes. It's really nice having other people to back you up because you know there's always somebody else that can come in and finish for you."
The road won't be getting easier any time soon for Wood and the rest of the Indiana pitching staff. The Hoosiers (5-4) will play No. 16 Texas A&M twice, the University of Texas-El Paso twice and Texas A&M Corpus Christi this weekend at the Texas A&M Invitational.
There's going to be rough outings, Gardner said. It's unavoidable.
But for Wood and the rest of Indiana's young staff, it's all part of a crash course in playing Division I softball. The Hoosiers will continue to put the ball in their hands and ride them through the good and bad as it comes.
"The thing I love about Josie, and the rest of them have this too, is that they want the ball and they want to win," Gardner said. "So when things aren't going well, they get mad. They want to get it back and fix it.
"Those are the tigers you want on the mound."
