MANCHESTER -- Sea Dogs slugger Bryce Brentz fouled off two pitches, working the count full before sending a missile over the left-field wall against the Fisher Cats.

It was nearly 11 o'clock on Wednesday night, and most fans had gone home from the doubleheader, when Brentz stepped to the plate against lefty Matt Wright.

On the seventh pitch, the Red Sox prospect waited on a changeup, lasering his fifth homer of the season off the Hilton Garden Inn. Brentz's two-run shot powered the Sea Dogs to a 3-2 win and gave Red Sox fans a preview of what's ahead.

“Strong hands. Quick wrists. He's got a chance to be an impact bat in the big leagues,” Sea Dogs manager Kevin Boles said. “As far as the raw strength, that's a good example of what he can do.”

Brentz, batting .300 entering Thursday night's game at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, is so serious about hitting that he helped develop his own Old Hickory model bat. The “BB4” model, inspired from his days at Middle Tennessee State, is 34 inches and 31 ounces.

“There was a bat that I loved in college, and I took it up to Old Hickory headquarters about 40 minutes away. They took the specs and put my signature on it. It's pretty cool,” Brentz said.

The 23-year-old outfielder has caught fire in the Eastern League, batting .403 with four homers in May. Red Sox farm director Ben Crockett, watching from behind the home plate netting during the series against New Hampshire, was likely more impressed with Brentz's patience than his power this week.

“I think he was more happy with my walk (in Game 1) than the homer because of the situation,” he said. “That's all part of the development. I'm still trying to figure things out with plate discipline, and that's going to have to come with more at-bats.”

Strike-zone management is the key area of development for Brentz, who leads the Sea Dogs with 48 strikeouts. Wednesday's home run was impressive, but he struck out and grounded into a double play with runners in scoring position in the previous at-bats. “I do something like (hitting the home run), but before that I'm trying to do too much. You just can't do that because the effort level goes up, your swing gets long and you get beat,” he said. “On the positive side, I'm happy I was able to make an adjustment later in the game. That's something I wouldn't have done two years ago at (Class A) Lowell. There's some progress.”

The Brentz homer off Wright had the trajectory of a Tiger Woods tee shot. The blast seemed to keep rising before smacking off the second level of the hotel.

“Wright stayed away with everything, and I was able to foul off a couple pitches,” he said. “I think the last one I fouled off was a fastball and I just missed it. I didn't think there was any shot he would come back in with a fastball, and he ended up throwing a changeup. He left it middle-in on the plate, and I put a good swing on it. I didn't pull off and stayed right on it and got the result that I wanted.”

Staff writer Kevin Gray covers pro baseball for the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. His email address is kgray@unionleader.com.