Sam Bennett is a right handed pitcher who employs an array of bat-missing pitches playing in his first season with the Lightning. Prior to his college baseball days, Sam was a standout at Berkeley Prep High School. To cap off his fourth and final year playing baseball at the school, he posted a 6-4 record with 90 strikeouts in 71 innings pitched to go along with a sparkling 1.04 ERA. He was named team MVP his senior season for those efforts. After graduating he headed off to the University of Chicago where he continued to be a strikeout machine. During his freshman year, he ranked seventh in the nation with an astounding 13.05 strikeouts per 9 innings while twice whiffing 11 batters in a start. In 2020, he was only able to make a pair of appearances due to COVID-19 shortening the season but managed to win them both, sending down 12 opponents on strikes in his 12 innings.