Nick Foust grand slam, Troy Barrett 12-strikeout gem deliver Chesterton a 7-4, season-opening win at New Prairie a day after the game was added to the schedule

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

They are called at-‘em balls, hard-hit baseballs directly at a fielder. Batting averages recognize them only as outs. Seeing-eye singles aren’t necessarily hit so hard, but they sneak through the infield, and batting averages recognize them only as hits.
As a sophomore, Chesterton outfielder Nick Foust had his share of seeing-eye singles and registered a .403 batting average. As a junior, Foust had seared more than his share of at-‘em balls and batted .220.
On opening day of his senior year, Thursday at New Prairie, Foust found a cure for the at-‘em ball blues. Hit it over ‘em, as in over the outfielders and the fence. Not only that, he did it with the bases loaded.
Foust’s seventh-inning grand slam was the signature play of Chesterton’s 7-4 comeback win over host New Prairie, but it was far from the only big moment.
Plus, although it gave the Trojans a 7-2 lead heading into the bottom of the inning, it didn’t put the game out of reach because the sun was dropping at a stadium without lights and the race was on: Chesterton’s bullpen not only needed to get three outs to make Foust’s hit stand up and make left-handed ace Troy Barrett the winning pitcher after his 110-pitch, 12-strikeout gem, the three outs had to be in the books before the game was called because of darkness.
It had reached the point where Chesterton would not have had a beef if it had been called. The generosity of the umpires and the opposing coach, New Prairie’s Mark Schellinger, allowed the game to last long enough for the Trojans to get the final out, coming on a Zach Fender curveball for a strikeout.
If the game had been called, the score would have reverted to the most recent completed inning, the sixth. New Prairie led 2-1 after six innings. Foust’s grand slam would have been erased from the record books.
“That would have been pretty upsetting; I won’t lie,” Foust said. “We battled back, and we won the game. If that had been called, I would have been upset.”
It would not have been the first time Foust would have been upset during the game. His ire was directed at himself shortly before his grand slam swing for not offering at the first hanging curveball he saw from New Prairie reliever Cameron Greene.
“I always tell coach, ‘Hang it, bang it!’ He hung the first one and I didn’t swing at it,” Foust said. “And then he threw the same pitch. The second one, I wasn’t going to let that one go. Exact same pitch and I swung at that one.”
Did he ever. Then he trotted 360 feet, making three left turns along the way and found himself in the middle of a mob scene halfway between home plate and the visiting dugout along the third-base line.
The game came on short notice. It was added to both schools’ schedules Wednesday night. The out-of-town weekend trip the Trojans were originally scheduled to play in had been canceled and they looked for a game and found one, last minute.
“Happy to play some baseball again,” Foust said. “We’ve been waiting all year for it.”
He was ready and went 2 for 3 with a walk and the first home run of his varsity career. He said he thinks it was the first grand slam of his baseball career since 12U travel ball.
“I couldn’t even tell you where that was,” he said. “Probably somewhere in Indy.”
Eight of the game’s 11 runs were scored in the final inning.
It started as a salty pitcher’s duel between Barrett and Cougars right-hander Sullivan Kress.
Trojans No. 9 hitter Nate Redman (1 for 3, walk, double, game-winning run) led off the third with a double deep to left and scored from third on Rob Czarniecki’s one-out groundball to the right side for the game’s first run.
The hosts tied it, 1-1, in the bottom of the inning when Jagger Daniels led off with a base hit. He scored all the way from first on Barrett pickoff attempt that first baseman Adam Kurek failed to catch, a ball that Foust, the right fielder, ran down.
New Prairie took a 2-1 lead on Reed Robinson’s two-out home run over the fence in left in a fifth inning in which Redman hustled down the first out catching a popup in foul territory.
Meanwhile, Kress was cruising against a lineup that included Brady McCormack batting eighth and playing third base, a significant accomplishment considering that on Sept. 13 he suffered a torn ACL and received surgery a week later. He made it back in less than six months.
On this cold April day with a first-pitch wind chill of 45 degrees, neither McComrack, instrumental with the bat in helping Chesterton to a 2024 sectional title, nor anybody else was able to heat up the lineup in the first six innings.
“Eight of our first 12 outs were strikeouts,” Chesterton second-year coach John Bogner said. “So, I made an executive decision and said the next guy I see not starting his at bat with a two-strike approach can run poles the rest of the season and won’t be in the lineup. So, we shortened up and barreled up a few.” Barrett was even more impressive.
"Troy was destroying it," Foust said. "They couldn't hit him."
But in order for it not to be in vain, Barrett would need support from the offense and it came when the New Prairie bullpen took over. The seventh-inning comeback started with Andrew Goveia reaching on an infield hit, moving to second on Redman’s one-out walk, and scoring the tying run on Bradford’s double to left that put runners on second and third. Naturally, Schellinger gave Czarniecki the open base with an intentional walk.
Ethan Glassman hit a dribbler up the first base line and the first baseman’s throw for the force at home drew the catcher off the plate and gave the Trojans a 3-2 lead. Foust’s grand slam pumped the lead to 7-2 and made Bogner wonder, “Should we start making outs?” with an eye toward the race against the sun going down and nullifying the runs. He decided to keep going and the Trojans loaded the bases again, only to leave the runners stranded with consecutive outs.
Bogner gambled that Dylan Bradord, who battled back problems during the offseason and so far has had trouble throwing strikes during his recovery, could get three outs quickly enough to beat the Cougars and the sundown. Walk, hit batter, strikeout, run-scoring double, walk. Enter senior Zach Fender, making his varsity debut with the bases loaded, the Trojans leading 7-3 with one out and darkness creeping. The first batter he faced struck out swinging through a fastball. The next walked in a run and the last batter struck out swinging at a curveball.
Fender earned the save, and the Trojans won the opener and will try to become 2-0 on Tuesday in a home game vs. Merrillville scheduled for 4:30 p.m.