Ryan Bench is back home for baseball
Intercounty league’s move to Welland lets Brock student play close to home
Had it not been for the Welland Jackfish, baseball this summer would have been back to Normal for Ryan Bench.
The 22-year-old Pelham native had been intending to return to the U.S. Midwest for another season pitching for the Normal, Ill., CornBelters in the Prospect League.
Bench began reconsidering the decision after receiving a call from Brian Essery, who was hired as Jackfish manager after the Burlington Herd received unanimous approval from the Intercounty Baseball League to move to Welland.
Essery wanted to know if the right-hander was interested in playing baseball much closer to home.
Given that would give the kinesiology major at Brock University time to begin working toward his masters degree, Bench didn’t have to be asked twice.
“It makes more sense to stay at home and work.”
Working would not have been an option had Bench returned to Normal – “It’s in the middle of nowhere,” he said with a chuckle – since that would have required a visa.
“You go there, it’s the same type of thing. They cover your expenses,” he said. “All you have to do is get there and get home.”
From what Bench has seen, the IBL compares favourably to the level of play in the Prospect League.
“I think it will be about the same as what I played last summer.”
Bench, who also previously played in the Palm Springs Prospects League in California, was a starter last summer but prefers to pitch out of the bullpen.
“It’s just easier to go back-toback days.”
Last fall, he pitched and played first base for the Brock men’s baseball team.
“This summer, I’m looking to pitch mostly.”
Bench was born July 16, 1997, three years after the Pittsburgh Pirates moved their Class A affiliate in the New York-Pennsylvania League to Erie, Pa., from Welland.
However, he knows all about Scott Bullett, who led the Welland Pirates in batting in 1990, his lone season playing out of Welland Stadium.
After retiring from a professional baseball career that included stints in the National League with Pittsburgh and the Chicago, Bullett returned to Welland and opened a baseball development program.
Bench was among the prospects the program attracted over the years.
“I grew up playing with Scott and Bullett Proof Baseball. We would spend most Saturdays and Sundays in the summer playing here,” he said of Welland Stadium.
The pitcher in Ryan Bench likes the ballpark that was built specifically to house a minor league baseball team.
“It plays really big. It plays bigger than it looks.”
Is that the E.L. Crossley Secondary School graduate’s way of saying the Jackfish will be playing out of a pitcher-friendly ballpark? “We’ll see,” he said with a chuckle.
Welland doubled the visiting Brantford Red Sox 6-3 under the lights Thursday to improve to 2-1.
Designated hitter Andrew Mercier paced the Jackfish at the plate with a double and single in two at-bats. Third baseman Nolan Pettipiece also doubled and singled, in four plate appearances; for Welland which outhit the Brantford by an 8-1 margin.
Four Welland errors resulted in three unearned runs.
Jackfish starter Euclides Leyer held the Red Sox hitless over seven innings while striking out nine and walking one to improve to 2-0.
Casey Bouilliere-Howard gave up a hit and struck out a batter over the final two innings to pick up the save.
Brantford fell to 1-3.
Welland hosts the Kitchener Panthers for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch Saturday and visit the London Majors on Sunday afternoon.