MSU Baseball’s Benschoter Signs NDFA With Cincinnati Reds
7/14/2021 6:08:00 PM | Baseball
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Senior pitcher set Spartan single-game school record with 17 Ks.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State baseball's Sam Benschoter signed a non-drafted free agent contract with the Cincinnati Reds.
The senior pitcher is the second former Spartan to join the professional ranks in as many days after fellow pitcher, redshirt-junior Mason Erla was selected in the 17th round of the Major League Baseball Draft on Tuesday.
Sam Benschoter signed a non-drafted free agent contract with the Cincinnati Reds.
Benschoter, a native of Tecumseh, Mich., earned the Craig Hendricks Spartan Spirit Award in 2021, receiving the award given to the most positive team player who is enthusiastic, trustworthy, conscientious, hard-working, and good humored in honor of Spartan Baseball alum Craig Hendricks. In true selfless fashion, Benschoter gave up the opportunity to start on Senior Day vs. Iowa in favor of coming out of the bullpen so that fellow senior Jarret Olson could make his one and only start of the year because of an injury suffered before the season began.
For the 2021 season, Benschoter was second on the team and tied for 12th in the B1G with 79 strikeouts, posting three wins in eight starts in 69.1 IP. Benschoter finished eighth in the B1G in strikeouts per nine innings (10.3).He opened the season in explosive fashion, firing a then career-high 10 strikeouts in a 6-0 shutout Victory for MSU over Maryland in the 2021 season-opener on March 5 at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina, going a career-high 8.0 innings. In MSU's first game since March 8, 2020, before the rest of the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Benschoter didn't show any signs of layoff, as he provided much of the excitement on the night, and was dealing, scattering just five hits to a Maryland offense that hit .258 as a team, and the Spartan hurler stymied the Terrapin offense, shutting them out after they led the Big Ten last year with 111 runs in 15 games (7.4 runs per game, including striking out well-decorated Preseason Award winner Maxwell Costes twice as part of holding him to 0-3.
Benschoter had another smashing outing on April 25, striking out a modern day school record 17 batters vs. B1G-leader Nebraska in 9.1 IP of relief. The 17 strikeouts is the most in modern day school history, bettering Mark Mulder's 16 Ks against Campbell on March 7, 1998. He was named to Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week list on April 26, and was named the Big Ten Conference Baseball Co-Pitcher of the Week on April 27 for his performance.
Coming into game to start the third inning, Benschoter struck out the side in the third and fifth innings on the way on the way to stymieing Nebraska bats, as they entered game leading the Big Ten in batting average, and Benschoter did not allow a hit until the eighth. Benschoter racked up two strikeouts in the fourth and sixth innings, and after yielding a leadoff single in the ninth, chalked up three strikeouts. The 17 Ks matched the most in the B1G this season and was tied for the second-most in a game in the NCAA this season, while the 9.1 IP is the most in the B1G and second-most in NCAA.
His 10 Ks vs. Maryland and 17 vs. Nebraska were two of his three double-digit strikeout outings on the season, also with 10 vs. Indiana on March 27, also in a relief role.
For his career, Benschoter finished with 143 strikeouts in 45 career appearances.
Off the diamond, Benschoter was a four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, and earned his degree this past spring in special education - learning disabilities.
