Cleared to play center field, Chesteron all-state slugger Rob Czarniecki hopes juggled lineup will help him see more pitches in two-game series vs. Valpo

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

All the kid wants to do is play ball. Is that asking too much?
Evidently it is because when Rob Czarniecki was in just his third game back in the lineup Friday from a prolonged absence caused by a leg injury, wouldn’t you know it, the first dust storm in 91 years hits the region.
And off to the Highland High fieldhouse both teams went for 45 minutes before resuming a game Chesterton would win, 5-3, Friday to extend its winning streak to three games.
“One of the windiest games I’ve ever played in,” Czarniecki said as he walked from the trainer’s room to the baseball stadium Monday afternoon. “Our hats were blowing off. They had the wind fence that you apply to the field and the zip ties broke off on half of it. It was that windy. I never saw anything like it. I felt like I was playing for the Bears.”
Big, strong, fast, a cannon for an arm, smart, what a quarterback he would make, but that’s not going to happen. Czarniecki, committed to Kentucky, is too good a baseball prospect to risk injury playing football.
Normally, baseball is one of those sports that subtracting one player from the lineup should not be the difference between a winning record and a losing one, but the Trojans are 6-0 with Czarniecki in the lineup, 8-10 without him. He was eased back in the past three games as a designated hitter and was cleared before Monday’s practice to return to center field for the series against chief rival Valparaiso, which is led by Czarniecki’s friend and former summer ball teammate Caden Crowell.
Chesterton (14-10 overall, 7-5 in the DAC) visits Valpo in the series opener today and welcomes the Vikings (18-5, 8-4) to town Wednesday.
Predictably, Czarniecki homered in his first game back, in just his second at bat. It came off hard-throwing Portage right-hander Kaleb Hacker, a friend, with two men on base in a 4-3 Trojans victory.
Just as predictably, teams are pitching around the slugger who earned all-state honors his sophomore season.
In 12 plate appearances since his return, Czarniecki has gone 1 for 5 with three RBI, a home run, six walks, two strikeouts and a hit by pitch.
“They’re not dumb,” Chesterton coach John Bogner said of opponents pitching around Czarniecki. “He can do a lot with one swing.”
Czarniecki has such a presence walking to the plate that it can play tricks on the mind. When he steps into the batter’s box, the left field fence looks closer than when anybody else hits. And if the mind plays tricks for those sitting in the bleachers, imagine what it does to the guy standing on the mound.
Bogner said he plans to move Czarniecki from third in the batting order to second, hoping that having Nick Foust behind him and Barrett on base when he comes to the plate will give his slugger more opportunities.
“I definitely think with Foust being after me they’ll be more reluctant to just send me over there to first,” Czarniecki said. “And the way Troy’s been swinging it, hitting with someone on base will help me.”
Czarniecki hasn’t had many chances to swing the bat, but the one swing was just what the doctor ordered.
“I’ve never been so excited to hit a home run. I’m normally not a big celebrator when I hit them. I took five hard steps and then I eased up because I just knew,” he said. “And the wind was coming in a little bit too. I just put a good swing on one. The pitch before I took a fastball right down the middle and I stepped out and I was like I can’t believe I just took that. What am I doing? It was the best pitch you could ask for. The second best. And then the next one, he grooved me one right down the middle and I just put a good swing on it.”
The ball hadn’t even cleared the Chesterton fence in left field when remembering a conversation he had with Hacker four days earlier made Czarniecki smile.
“Caden Crowell hit one off of him too and us three have been friends because we live around each other and we go hit,” Czarniecki said. “I saw Hacker that Saturday and I told him, ‘Dude, if I hit one off you too, you’re going to have to find new friends because Caden and I can’t just be hitting home runs off of you.’ That was the first thing that came to my mind.”
Now, Czarniecki hopes he will have his shot at Crowell.
“I want to face him as bad as I can,” he said. “I don’t have a hit off him in my career. And I’ve never beaten them.”
Whether Valpo will pitch him in the series remains a mystery. The Vikings might not want Chesterton to see him, figuring the less the Trojans see him, the better chance he’ll dominate them if they meet in the Valparaiso sectional championship game, scheduled for June 2. That’s why Chesterton plans on not throwing ace Troy Barrett in the series. Valpo never has faced him in a varsity game.
“I could see them throwing him and I could see them not at the same time,” Czarniecki said of Crowell. “I feel like they like to think about the sectional stuff, not pitching guys to try to get an advantage. I don’t think they’ll pitch him, personally. We’ll probably see (Trevor) Fenters (4-1, 1.05) tomorrow for senior night, probably a combination of a bunch of guys. Maybe (Zach) Troxel (3-0, 1.40) too.”
Whatever their names, Chesterton will face quality pitching.
In 29 innings, Crowell (3-0, 0.24) has allowed nine hits and five walks with 59 strikeouts. Crowell is committed to Notre Dame, which Czarniecki said was a factor in him considering going there, “along with it just being a great school and a great program and good coaches. But the way he’s going now, who knows if he even makes it there.”
By that he meant Crowell might be drafted too high to turn down the money.
Regardless of whether Crowell pitches in the series, Bogner knows his team will need to pitch as well as it has of late and field much better than it did against Highland to gain a split or sweep.
“They have two or three other guys who have given us fits,” he said of Vikings pitchers.
Chesterton’s pitching plans, according to Bogner: Dyland Bradford and Zach Fender will pitch in the first game, and “probably” Kaden Hawksworth, Ethan Glassman and John Knight in the second.
“Hawk’s had zero walks in his last two outings, so that’s been good for us,” Bogner said.
So too has Czarniecki’s return been good for the Trojans, but they still are not at full strength.
Cerebral catcher Caden Hackett, an excellent receiver who keeps pitches from getting past him, remains sidelined with concussion symptoms.