Striking out a few times in one game can send players into slumps.

In his much-anticipated freshman year at Bentley University, East Bridgewater High grad Greg Baggett struck out seven times in 13 plate appearances and did not record a hit. He nearly walked away from the game.

After his final at-bat of that dreadful 2009 season, Baggett did not record another plate appearance at Bentley for almost two years.

"He can do things with a baseball bat that other people can't,'' said Bentley assistant coach Kevin Loftus, a former All-American outfielder at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. "But it's been a hard process because on the surface you have a [Major League] draft pick, but between the ears you have an immature baseball player.''

There's a certain sound that comes off the bat when a hitter makes perfect contact. The bat head needs to smash through the center of the baseball on a level plane, making it a difficult noise to create.

But when Baggett is locked in, the loud crackling sound repeats over and over, the ball "flying off his bat,'' said Bentley senior pitcher Blaine McLean, Baggett's roommate for four years, who said he "should tour the country taking batting practice''

At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, with a strong arm behind the plate and a powerful, long swing, Baggett, who was also highly recruited as a tight end out of high school, was expected to make an immediate impact as a freshman with the Falcons. But he never settled into a comfort zone that season, and things only got worse the following year, when he had his eye on the starting catching position, only to lose the job to walk-on sophomore Kevin Korwek.

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