2 weeks Ago By Red Birch
Bennett Siegel could teach many of his fellow Colonial Valley Conference baseball players a few things about hitting this season.In a year when most CVC hitters are not exactly lighting the world on fire, Siegel is – nearly at a Barry Bonds rate, where teams are going to have to decide whether to pitch to him or just put him on.The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South senior center fielder, who bats second in head coach Joe Gambino’s lineup, is batting .
750 (18-for-24) with a 1.042 slugging percentage in eight games. That includes 14 runs scored, eight runs batted in, four doubles and one home run.
Siegel has been walked eight times, which includes six base-on-balls in his last three games.By comparison, of the 135 CVC batters who step to the plate on game days, only 11 have been having what most would consider impressive starts to the season. Six players have batting averages in the .
400s. Four more are batting between .500 and .
600. Then there’s Siegel – almost 200 points higher.“Every time he gets to the plate this season, I’m surprised when he makes an out,” said Gambino, who has only seen that happen six times in eight games.
“Bennett’s always been a great hitter. I really think he’s just healthy. The biggest change I see this year is that he’s hitting the ball to all fields.
He works counts, and he’s capitalizing on (pitchers’) mistakes. When he gets his pitch, he does not miss.”That’s high praise coming from Gambino, who grew up in the Hopewell Valley High system around a time when Kevin Bradley, who batted near .
430 for his career, was all the rage.“Kevin has always been the standard that I knew of,” Gambino said. “But with what Bennett’s doing, he’s kind of blown it out of the water.
”For a young man whose first name means “blessed,” what’s happening for Siegel probably shouldn’t be a surprise.Since recovering from a nagging hamstring injury last summer, Siegel gained the attention of Old Dominion University through travel ball, which led to a sports and academic scholarship offer that was a no-brainer.“I hurt my hamstring in sprint training.
Now it’s all healed up,” Siegel said. “Last summer, I had more struggles because I was playing a higher level of travel. I think the struggling helped me.
”Besides setting his mental focus for his senior year, Siegel adjusted his training regimen.“I worked every week with my hitting coach, Dan Intili, who’s an assistant baseball coach at Georgian Court University I knew from PPH (Power Pitching and Hitting),” Siegel said. “And I’ve been working out a lot at Thunder’N’Lightning Performance.
Even confidence-wise, I feel bigger, stronger and better. The mindset I brought into the season is trying not to do too much.”West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Bennett Siegel watches his single against Nottingham during a CVC Valley Division baseball game on Tuesday afternoon in Hamilton Twp.
(Kyle Franko/ Trentonian Photo)Helping with that approach has been the production on either side of him in the lineup.Bennett’s classmate, Jonah Kasof, has been hitting .458 (11-for-24) out of the leadoff spot, while junior Xander Rudisill, another left-handed batter like Siegel, is also hitting .
458 (11-for-24) in the No. 3 hole behind him. It makes the decision of whom to pitch to quite challenging.
“Bennett gets on, and I hit behind him,” said Rudisill, who already has more runs batted in this year (nine) than he has had total (seven) in the last two.“Hitting is 50 percent or more mental,” Siegel said. “I’m trying not to get frustrated, which is giving me less pressure mentally.
I’m trying to catch early ones (pitching mistakes), so teams don’t have a chance to walk me.”All the continued hard work has made Siegel, who is currently batting .275 higher than he was a year ago, a hitting specimen to observe – both for his physique and his smarts at the plate – in a league which sorely needs its batters to improve.
“I think committing to ODU before the season also helped,” Gambino said. “He’s playing free and just having fun with his teammates.”“(The Monarchs of the Sun Belt Conference) were pursuing me the most,” Siegel said of his college choice.
“When I visited there (Norfolk, Va.), it felt like the right place. After that, everything just fell into place.
”His hits have done the same to start the 2025 season. Maintaining his current tear may be difficult, but Bennett Siegel will do everything in his power to keep the streak alive before he graduates from the Pirates’ program June 26, then heads to ODU’s Bud Metheny Baseball Complex (team housing is right across the street) for a summer session shortly thereafter..
