To hold onto first place in the DAC, Chesterton baseball needs to split with Crown Point in Tuesday-Wednesday series brimming with with big-time talent on both sides

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Region high school baseball fans are afforded a rare opportunity to watch six NCAA Division I commitments exchanging blows Tuesday and Wednesday in a home-and-home series with first-place implications in the DAC race.
It might be advisable to arrive earlier than the scheduled 4:30 p.m. start time to Crown Point on Tuesday and Chesterton on Wednesday to guard against Major League Baseball scouts taking all the best seats.
The probable matchup for the opener pits a pair of Big Ten-bound pitchers against each other and both games feature position players who define strength up the middle defensively, burn on the basepaths, and make every at bat a must-watch event within the event.
Chesterton takes a 15-4 overall record and 8-0 DAC mark with sole possession of first place into the series and Crown Point (15-2, 7-1, the lone DAC loss to Portage) is alone in second place.
Barrett is 6-0 with an 0.81 ERA. He has walked three, struck out 53 and allowed 13 hits in 26 innings. Barrett has struck out 57% of the batters he has faced. Let that one settle in for a moment.
As a hitter, Barrett strikes out in 5% of his plate appearances, is batting .448 and has twice as many doubles (eight) as strikeouts (four) and has three times as many walks (12) as strikeouts. As a pitcher, he has 17.7 strikeouts for every walk.
Johnston is even stingier giving up hits than Barrett, but walks more batters. He is 5-0 with an 0.83 ERA. In 25-⅓ innings, he has allowed nine hits, walked nine and struck out 38.
The series also features lineups led by bona fide Indiana High School player of the year candidates. Chesterton center fielder/closer RobCzarniecki will be the first batter Johnston faces. Czarniecki is batting .574 with 14 walks, and in 61 at bats has eight doubles, six triples, four home runs and a state-leading 1.752 OPS (on base plus slugging).
Crown Point catcher Sean Dunlap and shortstop Caden Matusak qualify as the toughest challenges for Barrett. Like Barrett and Johnston, Czarniecki and Dunlap will continue playing for opposite sides in college, although not in the Big Ten, rather the SEC. Czarniecki signed with Kentucky, Dunlap with Tennessee. Matusak signed with Michigan.
Dunlap is batting .472 with seven walks, three doubles, two triples, seven home runs and an OPS of 1.562. Czarniecki earned all-state honors as a sophomore and Dunlap earned all-state honorable mention as a junior.
Matusak is hitting .413 with five doubles and three triples.
The aforementioned extension of rivalries into college presupposes the prospects don’t sign professional contracts out of high school, not necessarily a given in some cases.
Junior Riley Ackerman, a 6-foot-3 left-hander, is Crown Point’s Wednesday starter. Armed with a filthy slider, Ackerman (4-1, 2.24) has committed to Northwestern University of the Big Ten. Grace College commitment Dylan Bradford (3-2, 3.75) is Chesterton’s probable starter.
Both team’s strong-armed catchers, Dunlap and Chesterton junior Caden Hackett, will be tested in the series. Dunlap has stolen 10 bases, Czarniecki and Matusak nine, Barrett six. Crown Point sophomore Nathan Sheets leads both teams with 13 steals.
It will be interesting to see where the Trojans are ranked when the next Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association poll comes out, perhaps as soon as today. The poll released April 27 had four DAC schools ranked ahead of Chesterton: 2. Crown Point; 7. Valparaiso; 10. Lake Central and also Portage, which received 34 votes, compared to Chesterton’s 30 votes.
Those votes were cast before Chesterton swept a two-game series vs. Lake Central.
The DAC baseball standings with overall and conference records in parentheses: 1. Chesterton (15-4, 8-0); 2. Crown Point (15-2, 7-1); 3. Valparaiso (12-4, 6-2); 4. Portage (12-6, 5-3); 5. Lake Central (9-6, 4-4); 6. LaPorte (7-7, 2-6); 7. Merrillville (3-13, 0-8); 8. Michigan City (2-13, 0-8).
If Chesterton and Crown Point meet again this season after the series it would come in the regional round of the postseason. The IHSAA released sectional pairings Sunday night.
Chesterton, a sectional host, draws a bye in the first round and faces the winner of Merrillville vs. Valparaiso in one semifinal. Hobart and Portage also receive first-round byes and face each other in the other semifinal.
Crown Point, also a sectional host, receives a first-round bye into a semifinal vs. Hammond Central. Lake Central and Munster play in the first round and the winner faces Hammond Central in the other semifinal.