Baseball is a hazardous sport. Particularly in the outfield, where towering fly balls can disappear in the sun before careening from the heavens back to earth. The risk of a high velocity donking isn’t especially high, but does happen from time to time.
The pinnacle of this rare event came when Jose Canseco had a warning track fly ball sucked in by the gravity of his massive head before bouncing over the wall for a home run. On Friday, the College Park Regional of the 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament between Wake Forest and UConn produced a worthy successor.
Wake Forest center fielder Pierce Bennett is officially listed as an infielder and spent much of his first two seasons with the Demon Deacons as a second baseman. He moved off the diamond in 2022 and spent most of the season cycling between outfield spots and making occasional returns to the infield. He had 80 putouts and 21 assists while recording a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage this spring.
