An hour before the first pitch Wednesday, Vikings outfielder Owen Bendis was already sweating.
Bendis, who recently finished his freshman year at Purdue Northwest, had just caught his breath after chasing down fly balls before the Hammond-based Vikings’ Northern League game against the Elkhart County Miracle at Dowling Park.
Pregame fielding practice isn’t a common occurrence for summer league players, but it’s indicative of the unique path Bendis has followed. He graduated from Lake Central in 2023 but didn’t play baseball there.
“It was definitely different,” he said. “But it taught me a lot about myself.”
Bendis redshirted his freshman season at PNW but has found ample playing time with the Vikings (5-18). He entered Wednesday with a .279 batting average in a team-high 20 games. He also has team highs with 14 RBIs and 15 walks, and his .429 on-base percentage ranks second on the team.
Bendis pointed to a more well-rounded approach for his success at the plate.
“I’ve been wanting to be more consistent with my hitting and to hit the ball to all parts of the field,” he said.
Vikings manager Jake Hunt said it took awhile for Bendis to find his timing at the plate after not seeing live pitching at PNW.
“It was just about getting more reps in,” Hunt said. “Most of the guys hadn’t seen live pitching in a month, and it was probably even more in his situation. That’s why it took him a good half-month or so to find his groove. But all the at-bats he’s had this summer should help him out for fall ball when he gets back to PNW.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Bendis has had to catch up to teammates. After his freshman season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and his sophomore season was spent dealing with a nagging injury in his right elbow, Bendis decided that high school baseball wasn’t for him. Without a high school coach or a group of teammates around him, he could rely only on himself for motivation to ensure he didn’t fall behind his peers.
“Everyone else would be playing 30 or 35 games going into the summer when I didn’t play any,” he said. “So I just had to be consistent with my routine and keep working hard. I had a lot more free time, but I was still keeping busy every day with weightlifting or conditioning or hitting lessons.”
Bendis played plenty of baseball in the summer, though. He joined the Indiana Playmakers when he was 14 and spent each summer playing in tournaments all over the Midwest and going to local showcases that helped him get on college coaches’ radars.
By the fall of his senior year, Bendis had received an offer to play at PNW, where the head coach was a familiar face: Dave Griffin, who also coaches those Indiana Playmakers teams that were the staple of Bendis’ summers.
Although he sat out PNW’s season, Bendis believes he has already improved his game during his time there.
“I’d say it went well for the most part,” he said. “I definitely grew as a person. I feel like I got better, learning how to play the game at a high level, learning things from my teammates and coaches that made me a better baseball player.”
Teammates — like infielder Nick Mangano, who plays for both the Vikings and PNW — have taken note of Bendis’ commitment.
“He works very hard, both on and off the field,” Mangano said. “He’ll stay with me after practice and get extra reps in all of the time. He’s always the last one to leave.”
Bendis’ work will continue throughout the summer and into the fall, when he hopes a better mindset will help him land more playing time as a sophomore.
“I’m trying to be more positive,” he said. “I feel like I’m always hard on myself, so I’ve been trying to find positives to take out of any of the negatives.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.