CEDAR RAPIDS — His latest outing was his most encouraging outing.
Cascade’s Colin Rea threw 4 2/3 hitless and shutout innings Wednesday for the Double-A San Antonio Missions as he continues to rehab from elbow surgery that cost him the entire 2017 Major League Baseball season.
Rea walked four and struck out five against Frisco. He threw 89 pitches, 52 for strikes.
The 27-year-old right-hander was just beginning to establish himself in the big leagues when he was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in July 2016. It was a weird situation for him because he had just been traded from the San Diego Padres to the Miami Marlins.
The Padres ended up trading back for Rea after his injury. He tried platelet rich plasma therapy, but when that did not work, he underwent surgery in November 2016.
“It was pretty clear-cut, to be honest,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We decided to do the PRP just in case it worked. We knew it was a pretty significant tear. We thought we might as well try because I wasn’t going to be ready for this year whether I had the surgery in August or September or November. We weren’t going to lose anything. When we knew that didn’t work it was an easy decision (to get surgery).”
Rea threw off a mound and in minor league ‘B’ games in spring training and got sent to San Antonio in late May for his official rehabilitation. He is 0-2 with a 6.43 earned run average in five starts, allowing 24 hits in 21 innings, with 20 strikeouts.
He originally was a 12th-round draft pick of the Padres in 2011 out of Indiana State, where he pitched for current Iowa Hawkeyes Coach Rick Heller. Rea had a breakout 2015 season at San Antonio that saw him post a 1.08 ERA in 12 starts.
KERNELS MAKES ROSTER MOVES
The Cedar Rapids Kernels and parent Minnesota Twins announced before Saturday night’s game against Peoria that pitcher Blayne Enlow has been activated from the disabled list and pitcher Carlos Suniaga has been sent to Rookie-level Elizabethton of the Appalachian League. Enlow is 0-2 with a 4.46 earned run average in eight starts. Suniaga was 2-4 with two saves and a 3.93 ERA in 17 relief appearances, allowing just 29 hits in 34 1/3 innings.
HAWKEYE ALL-STARS
A pair of former University of Iowa players will play in Tuesday night’s Carolina League All-Star Game at Zebulon, N.C. Outfielder Joel Booker and pitcher Tyler Peyton were selected by league managers for the game, which is at Five County Stadium, home of the Carolina Mudcats. Booker went into Saturday hitting .293 for the Winston-Salem Dash, high-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. He was Chicago’s 22nd-round draft pick in 2016. Peyton, a 29th-round pick of the Chicago Cubs in 2016, has five saves for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.
ADENHART AWARD WINNERS
Mackenzie Redmond of Marion and Logan Hadsall of Center Point-Urbana were named the 2018 winners of the Nick Adenhart Memorial Scholarship, the Cedar Rapids Kernels announced last week. Adenhart pitched for the Kernels and was a promising young pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels when he was killed by a drunk driver in an auto accident in 2009. His family endowed an annual scholarship here in his name, with $1,000 each going to a local/area boy and girl senior athlete.
MiLB RAISES PROSTATE CANCER AWARENESS TODAY
Minor League Baseball, in collaboration with the Derrick Hall Pro-State Foundaation, is sponsoring a prostate cancer awareness promotion Sunday on Father’s Day. All 69 clubs playing home games, including the Cedar Rapids Kernels, will distribute “prostate cancer awareness literature, including brochures and branded giveaways to fans,” MiLB announced last week.
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