Chesterton portside pitcher, right-handed hitter Troy Barrett too much for LaPorte to handle as Trojans gain series split with 6-3 victory to improve to 7-3 on season

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

LaPorte pitchers Cody Benedict and Chad Rusboldt struck out 13 Chesterton batters and allowed just six hits, but the host Trojans found a way to win anyway in a series-evening 6-3 victory Wednesday.
Troy Barrett, from the mound and the plate, dealt the Slicers too many blows to survive.
A junior left-handed pitcher who bats right-handed, Barrett threw 111 pitches over 6-2/3 innings, allowed six hits, three runs (two earned), walked three batters, hit two and struck out 14. Barrett improved his record to 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA. His control wasn’t quite as sharp as it usually. On the season he has just seven walks and 50 strikeouts in 22-2/3 innings. He has been carrying a big early season load for the pitching staff. Barrett’s first win of the season came with a 110-pitch effort vs. New Prairie on opening day.
With returning all-state junior Rob Czarniecki sidelined by a re-aggravated hamstring injury and limited to just three games so far, Barrett also has been the most productive offensive player for the Trojans (7-3 overall, 5-1 in the DAC).
“I’m trying to work on hitting it to right field and hitting it to where they pitch it,” Barrett said.
That approach certainly worked in his favor Wednesday, a day after Chesterton lost at LaPorte, 6-2. The leadoff hitter, Barrett leads the team in batting .389, runs (15), extra base hits (six) and OPS (1.060). In RBI, he is second to Nick Foust (12) with nine.
Barrett’s two-run single to right was a highlight of Chesterton’s four-run fourth inning Wednesday, which gave the Trojans a 4-2 lead. The victors also received two RBI from Lucas Thompson and one apiece from Ethan Glassman and Josh Davis.
Barrett also doubled to right-center in the two-run sixth, which enabled him to take a 6-2 lead to the mound in the seventh.
One run and two outs into the inning, Bogner took the ball from Barrett and handed it to senior right-hander Zach Fender. He worked a 2-2 count with Chad Rusboldt at the plate and broke off a curveball that swept way outside and down, and was called a strike. Ballgame.
LaPorte starting pitcher Cody Benedict opened the game with three scoreless innings and seven strikeouts, at which point Chesterton coach John Bogner said he had a talk with the hitters.
“I finally told the kids we can’t do the exact same thing every at bat,” Bogner said. “Has somebody switched bats. Did they get up on the plate? Did they get up in the box toward the pitcher? Have we made any adjustments whatsoever? The answer was no.”
So, the coach said he told them “Get up on the plate, sit and rip a little bit, make him uncomfortable, look out to in, choke up on a bat, use a bat that you haven’t used before, anything, and we put up four runs. They made some adjustments. They were coachable.”
Barrett explained what Benedict was doing to be so effective for three innings and what the Trojans did to counter that in the fourth.
“He was attacking with his fastball and when it got later in the count, he started throwing his offspeed pitches, and it looked just like his fastball and bit off,” Barrett said. “We scooted up on the plate, so we were closer and made him a little more uncomfortable and he got a little wilder with us right up on the plate. “
As for what inspired the change, Barrett said, “Our bats weren’t very hot at the beginning, so we decided to get up on it and shorten up a little, put the ball in play and make them make a play.”
The Slicers’ pitcher slipped and fell covering a bunt, which added to the congestion on the bases in the decisive fourth inning.
The Slicers record dropped to 4-9 overall and 1-5 in the DAC, but conference records can deceive this early in the season, based on strength of schedule. For example, Chesterton’s schedule started with Michigan City and Merrillville, LaPorte’s with Lake Central and Crown Point.
The Trojans resume their schedule Friday at home vs. Munster. Morton visits for a doubleheader Saturday and the play a series next week with mighty Lake Central, on the road Tuesday, at home Wednesday.
Bogner said he does not anticipate playing Czarniecki in any of those games. The junior five-tool prospect who has committed to play baseball at Kentucky strained his hamstring running sprints outdoors with the temperature in the 30s during the conditioning phase of practice. He played the first three games before reinjuring it.
“My head, I don’t see him coming back until the Northridge Tournament, which would be a week from Saturday, but I’m going to err on the side of sitting him longer,” Czarniecki said. “We don’t need him for an April Saturday. I need him for May and June. I know he’s champing at the bit to play. He’s a competitor, and I do think our kids will play a little different when he’s out here. He’s just a presence.”
Nobody has played a bigger part in softening the blow of losing Czarniecki than Barrett.
“We miss him,” Barrett said of his classmate. “It’s definitely different without him out in center with his good defense and his good bat, so we’ll be very grateful to get him back.”