Chesterton baseball team prepares for facing Lake Central flamethrower Josh Flores today by embracing a less is more mentality at the plate

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton head baseball coach John Bogner stood behind the screen stationed 35 feet from home plate and fed baseballs into the batting practice pitching machine cranked all the way to maximum speed. Hitting coach Toby Gentry said he thought moving the pitching machine that close equated to “an upper-80s” fastball.
That’s how Chesterton spent a big chunk of Monday’s practice, trying to simulate the reaction time needed to hit Lake Central ace Josh Flores, a senior bound for Kentucky, one year before Trojans center fielder Rob Czarniecki is planning to join him.
A year ago, Chesterton did the same thing and had a BP pitching machine feeding sliders at another station in preparation for facing LC’s Griffin Tobias. The next day, the Trojans turned nine hits in 5-1/3 innings into seven runs (four earned) and won the home game, 8-7. Tobias exacted revenge in the regional, pitching a three-hit, three-walk shutout with 10 strikeouts.
“We had a very tight ump in our game here and our kids were just savages in hitting everything, so we were able to hit Tobias,” Bogner said. “And then in the regional he was on, and the ump had a little bigger, wider zone, so that was a bad combination for us. And he’s good, don’t get me wrong, he’s great.”
Flores is a different sort of good. He throws even harder than Tobias but doesn’t have the same breaking pitch and is wilder. In four starts, Flores is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA and has 15 walks and 23 strikeouts in 11-2/3 innings.
Flores’ fastball routinely is clocked at 92 mph and has reached as high as 96.
Chesterton hitters have struck out 81 times in 353 at bats, or once every 4.4 at bats, compared to once every 5.4 at bats during a 22-7 season in Bogner’s first year in Chesterton.
“We strike out a lot,” Bogner said. “I’m hoping if we have 16 strikeouts, he has 18 walks, and we find a way to manage to hit a couple of balls in between that.”
Bogner does not embrace the analytics nerds’ philosophy that virtually treats strikeouts the same as any other outs. He spends a great deal of time preaching a “two-strike approach,” and was happy to see a pair of seniors from last year’s team, his son Jason and Purdue Northwest shortstop Brayden Barrett, determine on their own that the two-strike approach was needed from the first pitch at times, including against Tobias.
“They would say go right to it and it trickles down to the rest of the dugout,” Bogner said. “Not one guy trying it or experimenting, next thing you know we’re down 4-0, we have no hits, and we have 11 strikeouts out of our 12 outs.”
Czarniecki, out with a hamstring injury, has one strikeout in nine at bats. Troy Barrett has three strikeouts in 51 at bats, once every 17 at bats. But you don’t have to be one of the top two hitters who have the most experience against elite pitching to know how to limit strikeouts. Sometimes you simply must trust that your coach has good advice.
“There are people who don’t think I know what I’m talking about, and they hate the fact that I make their kid use a two-strike approach,” Bogner said. “There are some who question it. And I say that can make us a different team in the Duneland if you buy into it because we can dictate some of the outcome, right? I’m not the kind of coach who sits there and watches the game and says, ‘Oh, man, you did your best.’ No, we can do better and that rubs some people wrong.”
Josh Davis came to baseball after his father had passed away. His mother consistently encourages him to trust his coaches.
Davis is a rarity in that he never played baseball until he was a freshman in high school. He is a first-year varsity player as a senior. He has one strikeout in 29 at bats and is batting .320.
“JD bought in right away,” Bogner said. “If I told him to go two-strike approach right away, if the kid were throwing 50 or 150, I think he would do whatever I asked him. He’s getting to the point where he’s hitting to the right side, he’s seeing it, and he bought in right away, that’s the other thing.”
Davis said he plans to go into the two-strike approach, which includes choking up on the bat and shortening the swing, right away if he is in the lineup against Flores.
“First thing, get up on the plate, go into two-strike and I’m just going to fight,” Davis said. “I just buy into what Coach Gentry and Coach Bogner have been teaching me and then go from there and see where it takes me.”
Barrett said he will “probably choke up a little” against Flores and shared his take on Monday’s practice: “With Josh throwing so hard we’re trying to get ready, get our timing down, keep the ball in play and make their fielders make plays.”
When Nate Redman was in the cage Monday, Bogner noted some changes that he saw and liked.
“Nathan, is that a two-strike I’m seeing out of you? Do I see you choking up on the bat there? You’re making me smile on the inside,” Bogner hollered.
A first-year varsity player as a junior, Redman said he has battled strikeouts throughout his career.
“I like it,” Redman said of the two-strike approach. “It helps you to keep fighting to put the ball in play with two strikes, not doing anything too crazy with it. Shortening the swing has felt really nice.”
Bogner said he thinks it would be appropriate against Flores for the hitters to walk up to the plate with the mentality that they already have two strikes.
“I think so. I’d like to see it,” he said. “I don’t want to find out later, chasing a run or two. Let’s make him uncomfortable right away. We’ll see what they do.”