Will Boyce ’15 | Staff Writer

Hitting his 22^nd career home run, Carmen Benedetti ’13 broke South’s home run record against Country Day on Saturday, May 18.

“It meant a lot to me,” Benedetti said. “It shows that with hard work and determination you can do anything.”

Benedetti drove in 5 RBI’s that day to contribute to the 13-3 rout of Country Day on South’s diamond.

Head coach Dan Griesbaum’s son and current assistant coach, Dan Griesbaum Jr, held the record since 1999.

“I am no longer the @GPSBaseball homerun king, thanks to @Carmatron32 (Benedetti), and I can’t imagine a better guy to pass me,” said Griesbaum Jr. via Twitter.

“I can’t say that I had much to do with Carmen’s success,” said Head Coach Griesbaum. “If we’ve done anything here it’s just been providing him the opportunity to succeed.”

Griesbaum said that the only real teaching he has had to give Benedetti is in regards to the mental part of the game, knowing what the pitchers are trying to do and how to approach an at bat.

“Carmen has always felt comfortable, and the team has always been comfortable with him; he’s the most well liked player on the team,” said Griesbaum. “In terms of pressure, I don’t think he feels much, he’s been in many pressure situations throughout his career.”

Griesbaum went on to say that he thought Carmen probably didn’t even realize that he broke the record. With Carmen it’s not about that, he’s a team orientated player.

“He’s very baseball smart, he’s played a lot of games, and he’s probably a college player in high school; he’s got that knowledge and experience,” said Griesbaum.

Benedetti explained that he thinks that beating the homerun record will probably help his game, passing the record was in the back of his mind and was putting him in a little bit of a batting slump.

“Normally, I wouldn’t think about something like that very much, but people kept putting it on my mind by talking about it,” said Benedetti. “So it did affect me a little bit.”

On the topic of someone ever beating his record, Benedetti said he hopes that someone will some day because it shows that this little town has really good ball players.