<\/p>\n
A college baseball player is drawing attention for his unique approach at the plate.<\/p>\n
Rikuu Nishida is a junior second baseman and in his first season with the Oregon Ducks<\/a>. The Ducks swept a four-game series with San Diego over the weekend. In Sunday\u2019s game, Nishida hit an opposite-field home run to make it 1-0 in the first. The homer was the first of Nishida\u2019s career. <\/p>\n Take a look at the homer and also try to listen to the at-bat.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n If that sounded a lot more like a crack of the bat rather than the traditional college \u201cping,\u201d that\u2019s for a good reason. What\u2019s unique about Nishida is that the junior college transfer uses a wood bat at the plate rather than the usual metal bat that nearly all college baseball players use.<\/p>\n Many college baseball fans took note of the wood bat being used by Nishida and were surprised.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Wood bats are generally inferior to metal bats, which provide more power and usually don\u2019t break\/crack the way wood bats do. That\u2019s why it\u2019s surprising to see someone use a wood bat by choice.<\/p>\n For a college junior to hit an opposite-field home run with a wood bat shows a lot of power. It\u2019s even more impressive when it comes from a second baseman who is listed<\/a> at 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds.<\/p>\n Nishida is from Osaka, Japan and played high school ball at Tohoku High School, which is the same school Padres ace Yu Darvish attended.<\/p>\n Prior to transferring to Oregon, Nishida was a two-time All-America selection from Mt. Hood Community College. He also starred over the summer last year for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the Cape Cod league.<\/p>\n Nishida is batting .250 this season and leading the Ducks with 10 runs scored and nine stolen bases in 11 games. He\u2019s highly regarded for his bat-to-ball skills and has twice as many walks (6) as strikeouts (3).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n