Badenhop fires against Reds

It was good to see a former Lima Loco doing well.
Florida right-hander Burke Badenhop, who pitched for the Locos in 2002, put together a solid outing against the Reds Monday.
The 6-foot-5 lanky Badenhop went six innings and gave up four runs, three earned, on six hits. He struck out two and walked two. Badenhop threw 90 pitches, 57 for strikes.
It marked his third straight strong outing in a row after starting out with a couple of so-so starts.
Badenhop was throwing his fastball around 91 mph, but was throwing plenty of off-speed pitches for strikes. With the Locos, Badenhop threw plenty of strikes and got ahead in the count, but mostly threw in the high 80s.
That was just after his freshman year at Bowling Green State.
More than anything else, I remember Badenhop as a fun-loving comedian who loved to keep his fellow Locos loose. But on the mound, he took his summer in Lima pretty seriously.
After making a few relief appearances, he worked his way into the rotation and battled every time he took the mound. He went 3-2 with a 3.00 earned-run average for the Locos. In 39 innings, he gave up 29 hits. He struck out 29 and walked 15.
He was a 19th round draft pick of the Tigers in 2005 and quickly shot through the Tigers' system. He was involved in the offseason trade to Florida that sent Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera.
Badenhop is the 10th Lima Loco to reach the majors.
So on Monday, while I watched Badenhop pitching for the Marlins, I thought of him joking around the Shawnee diamond with the Locos.
And it was nice to see he was doing well.