It’s fairly common for high school pitchers to also be solid hitters. It is not till college and the professional ranks that nearly every player specializes in one or the other.
But it’s less common for players to view being a two-way player as different sides of the same coin.
That is how Suncoast star Brady Benevides views pitching and hitting.
“For me, they’re both kind of rotational movements, so I don’t see much of a difference between them,” Benevides said. “I’ve always just been like a natural pitcher. I’ll throw bullpens and everything but it’s not like I’m doing pitching-specific training all that often. I trust in my body to naturally move. So I feel like, especially with the coaching staff that we have and their knowledge of everything, just knowing my body, being able to stay in movement throughout the week. I think as long as my body has the ability to move naturally, I think pitching and hitting are (almost) one and the same.”
What the Suncoast junior is doing is working. He had a dominant season at the plate and on the mound, and he is the Sun Sentinel Palm Beach County Class 5A-1A player of the year.
Benevides doesn’t throw especially hard, throwing his four-seam fastball in the low to mid-80s. He also has a two-seam fastball, a curveball, a standard slider, a spiked slider with more downward break and a changeup.
The varied pitch arsenal helped him befuddle opposing hitters. Benevides went 7-3 with a 1.69 ERA, striking out 69 batters and walking just 17 in 56 innings.
“The big thing for me is confidence,” Benevides said. ’My big thing this year was that first-pitch strike. I feel like if I get that first-pitch strike, especially … if I get a good pitch and I get a reaction out of the hitter, I get a little more confidence in the rest of the at-bat that I can go up and do whatever I want and I feel like I can be able to command the at-bat rather than being controlled by the hitter.”
At the plate, Benevides helped lead a solid Suncoast team, batting .365 with three home runs and a 1.179 OPS.
Benevides is committed to Richmond, where he may continue to be a two-way player.
“For sure, hitting, and then pitching isn’t 100 percent (assured) but I have talked to them about it,” Benevides said. “And there is a good possibility of pitching, as well, depending on how I develop in the next year or two.”
