With its top two catchers graduating this season, the University of Maine baseball team is going to need some help at that position in 2017.
Jonathan Bennett hopes to be the player to fill that void. The left-handed hitter from Pensacola, Florida, has given a verbal commitment to attend UMaine starting in September.
UMaine coach Steve Trimper is prohibited by NCAA rules from talking about a recruit until the school has received a signed National Letter of Intent.
The UMaine staff has done extensive recruiting in Florida during the last several years and has five Floridians in the fold this year.
“I was playing down south in the Florida state all-star, and coach Trimp ran across me and I took a visit (to Orono),” said Bennett, who explained he chose UMaine over the University of New Orleans and Marshall.
His comfort level with the UMaine coaching staff and the baseball facilities led him to choose the Black Bears.
“I really fell in love with the coaching staff,” Bennett said.
He looks forward to working closely with UMaine associate head coach Nick Derba, who was a catcher in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
“I felt like I could get a lot better with having a coach like him behind the plate,” Bennett added. “I really liked the drill work he had and how he pushed the catchers with high intensity.”
The Bennett, 22, will make his return to the Division I ranks after a two-year stint at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida.
He began his career at the University of South Florida in 2013 but suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to undergo surgery. With South Florida coach Lelo Prado having been let go, Bennett transferred to Gulf Coast, which is a community college.
“It was hard, mentally more than physically, getting back into baseball. Sitting out a whole year — it was tough,” Bennett said of the 2015 season.
The 5-foot-10, 195-pounder is having a productive season at GCSC. He’s batting a team-leading .432 with 21 runs batted in, nine doubles and 31 runs scored in 40 games.
He features an on-base percentage of .524, has stolen three bases and has committed only two errors in 290 chances (.993).
“I’m settling back in,” Bennett said. “I got really comfortable this year, got back in my zone, started playing well again.”
Gulf Coast State, coached by Mike Kandler, has a 35-10 record this season and has qualified for the state tournament in the hope of advancing to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I national tournament.
Bennett was a four-time all-area pick and a 2013 all-state selection in baseball at Pensacola High, where he also played on the school’s 2009 state championship football team.
Bennett, who has never seen snow, received reassurance from his fellow Floridians that the winter weather and the often cold baseball conditions in the spring aren’t too much to overcome.
“You get used to it. You adapt to everything,” he said.