It’s not a surprise Arkansas outfielder Andrew Benintendi is doing well. He was the national high school player of the year at Cincinnati Madiera two years ago, hitting .542 over a four-year career.
Benintendi finished as Ohio’s all-time leader in runs scored (199) and second in hits (213).
It’s just that he made a huge jump from his freshman season when he hit.276 for the Hogs. But it all began to change midway through the SEC season last year. He was hitting.263. Head coach Dave Van Horn noted it was probably the first time in his career that Benintendi “had failed.”
Van Horn joined hitting coach Tony Vitello in suggesting a change in his batting stance. Both wanted Beintendi to close his lead foot and soften his stride. Finally, pitching coach Dave Jorn hit the right cord, perhaps a little tougher approach, as the Hogs were preparing for a road series last year at LSU.
It’s those changes that have clicked this year as Benintendi has stroked 17 home runs with a .411 batting average, both atop the SEC, through Thursday night.
“We’d all been on him about being too open,” Van Horn said. “I told him he was off balance. Dave (Jorn) just kept on him. Dave can do that, like he’s hacked off.”
Van Horn can bring the tough love, but there may not be anyone as blunt or tough as Jorn, a former minor league pitching coach with the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Mets.
Clearly, Jorn is one of the top pitching coaches in college baseball. He’s worked magic with the UA pitchers in the last month. The bullpen is suddenly solid and freshman Keaton McKinney has blossomed as an ace on Sunday.
But, don’t think Jorn is JUST a pitching coach. He is going to help the UA hitters, too, if he sees a flaw. Last year, he got his point across to Benintendi, helping him make the adjustment to salty SEC pitching.
“When you are a freshman in this league, you are facing some pretty good stuff,” Jorn said. “What I saw was a lot of motion in his stance, swing. He was open and striding and diving at the ball. There were a lot of pitches that were just eating him up.
“Those are things I saw. My job is to watch hitters and get them out. You watch what they are doing. I could see what they were doing to him and I tried to help him.”
Benintendi said he noticed an immediate difference. He raised his average to .276 by season’s end. Most see their overall average drop in SEC play. So the change was working.
Van Horn had some more advice at season’s end. Go home and lift weights and take a summer off. He’d worn himself down from going from baseball to basketball and back the previous four seasons. Lift weight and get stronger. Benintendi added almost 15 pounds of muscle over the summer. With a more balanced swing, more strength and a baseball that travels further, Benintendi has rolled through his sophomore year.
Jorn didn’t want to take the credit. He said Benintendi put in the work and is just that talented.
“It doesn’t take much with someone like Andrew because he’s a good baseball guy, has good understanding,” Jorn said. “He’s real good. He won’t be here next year.”
Benintendi doesn’t want to talk about that, or the possibility of being the national player of the year. He’s a finalist for almost every significant award, including SEC player of the year. He’s a likely first team All-America. Those awards, are like the draft, Benintendi pushes talk aside.
“If it happens, it happens,” Beintendi said. “I really am not looking ahead. I’m not worried about any of that. I’m just trying to win games.”
That’s exactly the approach Van Horn has preached, but the Arkansas coach knows Jorn is correct.
“He could be a sandwich pick,” Van Horn said, noting the major league draft’s round between the first and second. “The scouts love him.”
Scouts are allowed to interview players on Mondays. There has been a long line waiting on Benintendi.
“I think the most has been seven,” Benintendi said of his visits. “They just want to explain the process and get to know you.”
It’s been fun for Tyler Spoon to watch. As a hot fourth-year junior, Spoon also has been attractive to pro scouts during the Monday interviews.
“I’m probably not getting as many questions as Andrew,” Spoon said. “They are really interested in him because he’s clearly a top guy.”
Teammates love Benintendi. They’ve had fun teasing him as the national attention grows.
“We’ve gotten him pretty good at times,” Joe Serrano said. “The thing about it, he’s not any different now than he was when he got here. He does not like all of the attention. We know that. So we kid him about it. He knows we have good intentions.”
Pitcher Jacob Stone said there was no one getting Benintendi out in the fall, but that didn’t set him apart at the time.
“We weren’t getting anyone out,” Stone said. “We knew some of it was the new baseball, but our offense was tough to handle in the fall. To be honest, everyone was hitting us. We were questioning our ability (as pitchers).
“So I can’t say that we saw all those home runs coming from him. He didn’t have a great freshman year.
“What I can tell you is that we never saw him change as a person. He’s a great teammate and an even better person. He’s humble and cares about his family and plays his heart out until someone tears his jersey away from him.”
Benintendi insists the goal is not to hit home runs. He’s just trying to hit it hard. But, if someone pitches him inside, his hands are so quick, the ball jumps out down the line in right. He hit one out in spacious TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday night. He dipped his back knee and went down to get a low pitch with college baseball’s most beautiful swing.
“I don’t think about them,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d hit this many, but I’ll take it.
“Mentally, we just want to put ourselves in as good of a position in the standings as we can,. You just have to keep winning the next game. If we slack off, we could be back where we were.
“We just try to stay on an even keel,” he said. “We always felt like we had ability. We just had to stay together.”
Actually, what the Hogs had to do was climb up on Andrew Benintendi’s back.
Clay Henry can be reached at [email protected].