Boswell gives Hawks five at the plate

Bret Boswell's 2017 baseball season started Feb. 17 with the Texas Longhorns' 4-3 loss to the Rice Owls. Almost six months later, the Rockies' eighth-round pick is nearing the end of his first professional season without any signs of fatigue.
Colorado's eighth-round Draft selection posted his first five-hit game in the Minors with a career-high five RBIs in Class A Short Season Boise's 12-5 rout of Eugene on Tuesday night at Memorial Stadium.

"It's huge," Boswell said of the two early professional milestones. "I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't fall off toward the end of the season, especially getting tired, body's getting a little beat up. Having a night like this kind of rejuvenates me and makes me feel like I can really push through that last month. Hopefully we can make a playoff run and I can help the team out with whatever I can do."
Gameday box score
Boise's second baseman started quickly, following game-opening singles by Steven Linkous and Matt McLaughlin with a two-run double to right field in the bottom of the first inning. After beating out an infield single to first base in the second, Boswell grounded out to second to finish the third, the only time he was retired on the night.
In the fifth, with Linkous and McLaughlin aboard again, Boswell cracked his seventh home run to right to stake Boise to a seven-run lead.
"With the double, I'd just missed two fastballs, one up and one away, and [Eugene reliever Casey Ryan] kind of brought one in on me," he said. "With two strikes on me, I wasn't trying to do too much, just put a good swing on it. The home run was basically the same thing. I got two changeups earlier in the count, and the guy tried to come in again. I didn't pull off or anything and was able to stay in it and be on time.
"Today I was talking with our hitting coach Robbie Cancel, lately I've been a little off rhythm, off time. We worked on that in the cage right before the game, and it seemed to all kind of connect tonight during every at-bat basically."

Boswell singled to right to lead off the seventh and again to right with two outs in the eighth. Linkous, McLaughlin and Boswell combined to go 10-for-14 with eight runs and six RBIs from the top three spots in the Hawks lineup.
"When they get on base like that, it's awesome, especially when they're in scoring position," Boswell said. "It makes my job pretty easy. I love hitting behind Linkous, because I get to see how the pitcher's going to throw to him and learn from that. Matt always battles and sees a lot of pitches, so by the time I get up there, I basically know what the pitcher's got and I'm ready to be attacking him."
The former Longhorn's long summer is nearing its final chapter, but lessons are still coming, including things to forget and days -- like Tuesday -- to remember.
"Putting everything behind me from the at-bat before and the games before and treating every day basically like it's the first day of the season, once I do that, then I can just relax my mind, and everything seems a little simpler," Boswell said of the everyday grind of professional ball.
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This win was different.
"I'm going to take everything I learned from tonight, all my at-bats and hopefully just build off that and really work on my timing and stick with my approach that I had tonight," he said.