Benge delivers perfect day at plate for Lowell

With two chances to put himself in the history books, Garrett Benge resisted the urge to go outside his comfort zone and still managed to have a career night.
"I feel like I'm at my best when I don't try to do too much and I just take a good 75- or 80-percent swing rather than full throttle at the plate," the Boston third-base prospect said. "It's definitely easier said than done, but I feel like whenever I stay within myself and just get a good pitch to barrel up, it works really well for me."
Benge turned in the best game of his brief career by going 5-for-5 with five RBIs in Class A Short Season Lowell's 10-3 win over Connecticut at Dodd Stadium.

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"I'm feeling good, but every day is a new day," said Benge, who fell a homer shy of the cycle in his 26th Minor League game. "I just have to keep working every day to get better than you were the day before. There's always room for improvement, but I'm feeling pretty confident."
The 21-year-old opened with an RBI double to left field in a four-run first inning. Benge followed with a single to center in the third and a two-run triple to right in the fifth, all off starter Jose Vasquez (1-2).
"It was first and third with nobody out, so obviously, from a pitcher's standpoint, he's going to try to get something down in the zone to where I can hit on the ground and they can roll a double play on," the Yukon, Oklahoma native said. "So I was trying to look for something elevated out over the plate that I could put a good swing off and hit in the gap. It was 2-1, slider, middle-in, so it was a really good pitch to swing on. I just moved on the right pitch."
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Benge had two chances for the cycle, but delivered RBI singles to right in the sixth and eighth instead.
"That's always on your mind, but I was just trying to stay where I was at mentally," the 6-foot, 205-pound slugger said. "Just trying to go up there and just get another good pitch and put a good swing on it. I wasn't trying to boost up my swing effort at the plate, because usually for me, whenever I hit a home run, it's unintentional."
Benge, who's still looking for his first long ball in the Minors, went deep 10 times during his junior year at Oklahoma State before he was named to the All-Big 12 First Team and selected by the Red Sox in the 13th round of this year's Draft.
It wasn't the first time Benge went through the process. He was taken in the 22nd round in 2015 by Cleveland, but transferred to Stillwater after one year at Cowley County (Kansas) Junior College.
"I feel like personally, for my career and personal experience, that was the best decision I could've made," said Benge, who was named the National Junior College Athletic Association Player of the Year in 2015 after hitting .502 with 19 homers and 97 RBIs with the Tigers. "Not to mention the lifelong friends I've made there, but the coaching staff [at Oklahoma State] helped me continue to develop as a player and get stronger and stay with a routine. That was definitely a huge step in the right direction."

The performance bumped Benge's average by 39 points to .292. He's batting .458 (11-for-24) over a six-game hitting streak. 
"I feel like I've been hitting the ball well all year, but just kind of right at people at times," he said. "But it's baseball, it happens. The only thing you can do is keep swinging it and keep the confidence up. I think that's the biggest thing."
Brett Netzer collected three hits and scored three times , while Frankie Rios, Juan Barriento and Marino Campana added two hits apiece for the Spinners, who were 7-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Enmanuel De Jesus (2-2) allowed four hits and struck out five without a walk in 5 1/3 scoreless innings for Lowell.