The idea came to him at times, but Garrett Benko didn’t let it linger.
He couldn’t seriously consider ending his baseball career.
“The thought crossed my mind,” Benko said. “But I never counted myself out that I was going to play again.”
Knee injuries nearly derailed his career. But the 6-foot-4 right-hander overcame those hurdles and has secured a key role in Andrean’s rotation in his senior season, which continues Saturday. The defending Class 3A state champion 59ers (25-6-1) will play New Prairie (22-7-1) in the Plymouth Regional.
Benko, a St. Xavier recruit who is 7-1 with a 2.40 ERA, 49 strikeouts and just 18 walks in 43 innings, initially used just one word to explain his success this season.
“Consistency,” he said. “I focused on what I was working on during the offseason and have had that transition to the game.”
Benko has sharper command — he said he has a better feel for all of his pitches this season — as well as improved physical tools after an offseason of weightlifting.
Andrean coach Dave Pishkur noticed the latter.
“During our fall and winter workouts, he was really good in the weight room,” Pishkur said.
Benko’s progress has made him the kind of pitcher Pishkur can trust in key situations, such as the regional semifinal against Hanover Central on Saturday.
Benko was summoned to the mound after the Wildcats grabbed an early 1-0 lead and were threatening to add more. But Benko halted that rally, and then Andrean’s bats came alive. The 59ers won 7-5.
That confidence in Benko first emerged last year after he transferred from Chesterton. Pishkur said the staff wasn’t sure what Benko could bring to the team at first, but the picture became clearer as the season progressed.
“By the end of that year, he’d bypassed some of our starters to become one of the first guys out of the bullpen for us in the postseason,” Pishkur said. “He was really solid at the end of the year. I would’ve felt comfortable putting him in at any point.”
Benko’s situation looked much different a few years ago after he injured his right knee while playing pickup basketball. He needed reconstructive surgery on his medial patellofemoral ligament. Then, during his sophomore year, Benko had a procedure on his left knee to clean up bone fragments.
Benko said he still feels lingering effects from those problems.
“It’s been shaky,” he said. “Especially earlier in the season, it still bothered me a little bit. But I’ve strengthened it, so it’s been a little better.”
That discomfort wasn’t going to stop Benko this season, however. Pitching runs deep for him. His mother, Kim, pitched at Eastern Illinois. His sister Lexi, a former Chesterton standout, just graduated from Indiana State, where she went 15-9 with a 3.14 ERA this season.
Despite their age gap, the Benko siblings spent plenty of time working together on the pitching mound in their basement when they were younger.
“He’d catch for me when I was pitching, and then I’d catch him,” Lexi Benko said. “Our whole childhood was spent down there, getting that extra work in. It was kind of cool having a brother there because we pushed each other in different ways that I wouldn’t think of and vice versa.”
The only problem was they eventually outgrew the space.
“It’s only 54 feet down there,” Garrett Benko said. “So it worked when I was younger. But as we got older, we had to take it outside.”
Still, those basement sessions became the foundations for their pitching careers. Garrett Benko said he hopes his will continue beyond Saturday.
Pishkur said Wednesday that he didn’t have a starter determined for the regional game but that Benko is “definitely in the equation.”
Should Benko get back on the mound, he already has a game plan in mind.
“I just have to fill up the zone and trust my defense,” he said. “And then let the boys on offense do the work that I know they can do.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.