Bryant’s Travis Wood made his Major League spring training debut for the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday and worked two scoreless innings of relief.

Wood, among the candidates for the Reds’ fifth starter spot, worked around a walk in the fourth inning then retired the side in order with two routine groundballs before he struck out a batter on three pitches to wrap up his stint, according Mark Sheldon, the Reds reporter for mlb.com.

By Rob Patrick

Travis Wood and his bride of almost 14 months, Brittany, will be leaving the snowy Bryant area headed for sunshiny Arizona this week. Wood will be embarking on his first Major League spring training as a member of the 40-man roster for the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds will be inaugurating a new spring training facility in Goodyear, Ariz., after being in Sarasota, Fla., for years.

“I don’t really get nervous,” he said late last week on a trip back to Bryant after a day of fishing with his dad, Jay, at Lake Maumelle. “It’s just another year. I’m going to go do what I can.”

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CINCINNATI — After a spectacular season in the Class AA and Class AAA levels of the Minor Leagues, Bryant's Travis Wood, son of Jay and Dena Wood of Bryant, has been added to the 40-man roster of the Cincinnati Reds Major League Baseball team for the first time.

Wood, a former star with the Bryant Hornets high school team and the Bryant Black Sox American Legion team, was a second-round draft pick by the Reds in the June 2005 first-year player draft. According to a story on mlb.com, Wood and six other members of the Reds' Minor League organization were added to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft at MLB's Winter meetings next month. It also indicates that the Bryant product will be invited to the Reds' Major League spring training in February 2010.

By Rob Patrick

Former Major League pitcher and major college head baseball coach Geoff Zahn returns to Bryant this week at Diamond Sports.

Along with private lessons Thursday and Friday, Zahn will conduct a pitching clinic entitled “Preseason Conditioning for Pitchers” on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon. Fee is $60 per player. (A coach may attend free with four paying players.)

“I’ve been coming to (central Arkansas) for several years and I’ve been giving what I call a total pitching clinic where we talk about mechanics, I videotape the guys and then show them up on the screen next to somebody like (Roger) Clemons or Mariano Rivera and just give them an overview of their motion compared to those guys, the Major League guys, and what they can do to improve,” said Zahn, a lefty who pitched for 11 seasons in the big leagues with the Dodgers, Cubs, Twins and Angels. “I give them conditioning exercises and we talk about strategy a little bit and arm care, the care and prevention of injuries.

Congratulations, Cliff Lee!

The Philadelphia Phillies' left-hander from Benton pitched a complete game to beat the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series.

Got memories of Cliff at Benton or at the University of Arkansas? Leave them in the comments below.

The Bryant High School baseball program is holding a Steak Night Draw Down at Gabe’ Grill on Sunday, Oct. 25.

In an effort to raise funds for a spring break trip for the team to the Cocoa Expo Spring Training facility in Cocoa Beach, Fla., tickets are $100 for two steak dinners and a draw down for $50 and $100 cash prizes including a final $2,000 prize.

Dinner is set for 6 p.m., followed by the draw down.

Tickets are now on sale through Tuesday, Oct. 20. Contact head coach Kirk Bock for tickets at kbock@bryantschools.org

Bryant Athletic Association coach, Stephen Kincaid, has been named the Coach of the Week by Weplay.com.

Kincaid, who also serves as the webmaster for the BAA website, said, “Weplay.com has provided a free new component of the BAA website where, for fall baseball and fall football, we have partially integrated WePlay into our online offering. WePlay really provides us the ability to offer a great social networking site to allow not only parents and coaches to stay informed and connected, but players as well since it has a robust online child protection layer.

“So far, it appears to have very positive review with most of the parents and teams, as they can set up their own groups to stay connected and link it to the Bryant Baseball league's group.”

DURHAM, N.C. — In the first round of the International League playoffs, Bryant's Travis Wood started for the Louisville Bats and worked five innings, leaving with the game with the Durham Bulls tied 3-3. Durham (Tampa Bay Rays) went on to claim an 8-4 win.

Wood allowed three runs, two earned on six hits. He walked three, struck out five and committed a pair of throwing errors in his five frames.

Aaron Boone, a former Bryant Hornets and Bryant Black Sox star himself, e-mailed to let us know that you can vote for Travis Wood as the "Breakout Player of the Year" in the Minor Leagues at http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp

The poll is on the lower left-hand side of the page.