The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
BENE ALUM ADJUSTS TO COLLEGE GAME
Fifteen games into Toledo’s 2020 season, Benedictine alumnus Connor O’Donnell began finding his way into the Rockets’ lineup. The Fairport native pinch-hit in a handful of games before he received a starting assignment in left field March 10 against Belmont.
Toledo played one more game, against No. 6 Vanderbilt, before the Rockets’ season ended prematurely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
O’Donnell and the rest of the nation’s spring sport athletes will preserve a year of eligibility from the canceled season, but this year was still valuable to the former Bengal as he began to acclimate himself at the Division I level.
“It was obviously cut short, which was disappointing,” O’Donnell said, “but I thought we were starting to put some things together and really come together. We get to redo it next year, so I’m excited about that.”
A first-team News-Herald baseball all-star in 2019, O’Donnell hit .330 with a home run, 33 RBI and 13 doubles as he helped lead the Bengals to their first district title since 1986.
On the field at Toledo, O’Donnell’s most significant adjustment was facing high velocity from pitchers on a consistent basis.
“When you’re in college, they’re all pretty much the same range — 88 and up,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t know if it’s easier in a sense, because the off-speed is a lot sharper, but you know what to practice. In high school, you’re practicing for every single thing.”
Toledo went 3-13 prior to the season’s cancellation.
O’Donnell played in five games and received eight total plate appearances. He walked once, struck out four times and seeks his first collegiate hit when the 2021 season begins.
The canceled season wasn’t a total loss, though. Experience in a D-I baseball program provided O’Donnell a lesson in focused training he expects will help him entering his second freshman season.
“I feel like now, these extra few months helped me out a ton, even right now,” O’Donnell said. “You don’t have to focus on school or anything, you just get to practice baseball. You can work on things you need to improve on individually, vs. college where you have to work as a team and improve as a team.”