ROUX: Benzel bucks family trend with baseball
GROVELAND -- With a mother, a father and an older sister on the water all the time, it would seem only natural for Tyler Benzel to take up the family sport of water skiing.
But while the family was out on the lake, Tyler found himself more attracted to land sports -- football, baseball, tennis, ice hockey and soccer. When his family was on the water, he often would stay home with his dog, picking up a bat and a baseball and hitting it around the yard for his dog to fetch.
From those simple beginnings, a passion for baseball grew. Now it will take him to college, just as water skiing did for his sister, Tarah, who competed for Rollins College.
Tyler Benzel, 18, who lives in Groveland but has been playing shortstop at Lake Highland Prep since his freshman year, signed a baseball grant with the University of Louisiana-Lafayette a few weeks ago.
Benzel should become one of three players from Lake County on the Ragin' Cajuns next year, joining former Umatilla player Jonathan Lucroy, the team's power-hitting catcher, and former East Ridge pitcher Buddy Glass, who has emerged as one of its top pitchers. Both Lucroy and Glass are juniors this year.
"I always felt like I had the opportunity to play on the Division I level, but when I signed it was a big relief," Benzel said. "I feel very comfortable going to Louisiana-Lafayette. They want to take care of their players. But it was kind of a weird feeling. When you go to sign you have all these pieces of paper in front of you. It felt weird that I just wrote my name on something and you know that unless something unusual happens, you are committed to them and they are committed to you.
"But I felt like this was the place to sign."
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Joe Williams
Orlando Sentinel
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Re: ROUX: Benzel bucks family trend with baseball
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