Picture this: the warm night air of summertime, the smell of ballpark hot dogs, the bright stadium lights and that split second of silence when a batter makes contact before the crack of the bat reaches the stands. It’s summer baseball, and it’s a small-town American tradition at its finest.
The Utes played their last regular season game on May 26, but for 16 Ute ballplayers who love the game, their baseball year was far from over. For some players, summer ball started within a few days of that season ending win against Oregon in Spring Mobile Ballpark.
Players shipped out to collegiate summer teams all over the U.S., from Walla Walla, Wash. to Wilmington, N.C. and plenty of places in between. Returning senior TJ Bennett got stuck in a little town called Palm Springs, Calif.
“Yeah I lucked out,” Bennett said, laughing. “But I’ve played in Alaska and some other places before and this being my last summer, my coaches told me I would be a good fit in Palm Springs.”
The U coaching staff decides where players will go. Coaches check in periodically throughout the short season but for the most part, ballplayers are responsible for their own hard work.
“Here you’re pushing yourself,” Bennett said. “No one is watching you. I feel like it’s my own thing, working through my struggles, my successes, developing and growing. There is less pressure and I work well in that atmosphere.”
To say he works well in that atmosphere is putting it lightly. While playing for the Palm Springs Power, Bennett was named the Southern California Collegiate Baseball League Hitter of the Month in June. He finished the month with a .369 batting average, 20 RBI, 17 stolen bases and a league-leading 22 runs scored.
Some players flourish in the summer ball atmosphere and some flounder, but according to Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg, summer performance doesn’t always translate to regular season play.
“It’s hit-and-miss,” Kinneberg said. “Two years ago Shaun Cooper was named Summer Player of the Year in college baseball. He came back and we were expecting big things. He did OK, but not quite as good as the year before. What we’re really looking for is good repetition. The more pitches, the more at bats, the more comfortable you feel. Players gain confidence and hopefully improve.”
Summer ball certainly provides plenty of repetition. Many summer ball clubs will play five or six nights a week, playing most of those games at home. An average day may look something like this: wake up and have breakfast with the host family, enjoy some down time, lift for an hour, get to the field by 3 p.m., take batting practice, eat a pre-game meal with the team, play at 7 p.m. and stay at the field until at least 10 p.m. Then it’s time to sleep, get up and repeat.
For some of the veteran players, including Bennett, summer is a time to get in the right mindset. After a disappointing 7-23 conference record this past season, Bennett believes what the Utes lack to compete in the Pac-12 is not the talent, but the confidence.
“We have the talent to play with these clubs and win ball games,” Bennett said. “The thing they have that we don’t is that winning mentality, the confidence that they can compete with anybody. We don’t have that — yet.”
If the way Bennett has swung the bat this summer is any kind of precursor to this upcoming season, the Utes should be feeling confident sooner rather than later.