Trojans clinch DAC title, the seventh in school history, with a 4-0 win over Valparaiso, Troy Barrett (10-0) remains undefeated and Ethan Glassman has another big day at the plate with two-run home run

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

To fully appreciate the prestige attached to wearing the title “DAC baseball champion” consider that the conference has produced the past two state champions. Plus, three of the top five schools in the current 4A rankings are members of the conference.
So it’s not a small deal that
Chesterton clinched its seventh DAC title at home on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon with a 4-0 victory over Valparaiso.
It was the 10th shutout of the season for the Trojans (21-5 overall, 12-1 in the DAC), who have scored at least four runs in every game with the exception of a 1-0 victory at Crown Point on May 5.
Senior left-hander Troy Barrett ran his record to 10-0 and lowered his ERA to 0.48 by limiting the Vikings (19-6, 10-3) to three hits and two walks and striking out 11.
Opponents are batting .142 against Barrett, who has nine walks and 89 strikeouts in 44 innings and he’s batting .400.
Barrett and center fielder/closer Rob Czarniecki rank as the top two producers for Chesterton’s first DAC champion since 2017, when Austin Peterson was a junior. He’s now a Triple A pitcher in the Cleveland Guardians organization.
But even when a team’s two best players are leading all-state candidates, winning a conference as strong as the DAC is out of the question without strong depth.
Shortstop Ethan Glassman, for example, has had a year at the plate productive enough to make most cleanup hitters envious and he bats No. 7 for the Trojans.
Glassman hammered a first-pitch fastball well over the fence in center with one on to give the home team a 3-0 lead in the second. The Vikings didn’t get him out all game. He walked his next two trips to the plate.
On the year, Glassman has scored 29 runs, driven in 26 and has 14 extra base hits.
“He’s not your typical 7 hitter,” third-year coach John Bogner said. “He just launches.”
Glassman started the year batting third, struggled, was dropped to the No. 7 hole and shortly thereafter took off.
“I think a lot of it was kind of just getting my head right, being a lot more confident in myself, just knowing what I can do, knowing that I’m prepared,”
Glassman said. “I trusted my work and all the work I put in this offseason. That’s something that’s true with the team a lot. We trusted the work we did this offseason, and we play with a lot of confidence. We don’t think we’re going to lose.”
That’s one of the things Bogner likes best about this team.
“The cool thing is our kids wholeheartedly believe they can beat anyone,” Bogner said then looked across to the visiting dugout, where the players were gathering their belongings. “And that’s a great team. They’re stingy. They make the solid plays and they’re not done and I’m sure that’s going to be part of their conversation. I’m sure they’re going to say, ‘Let them have the conference and we’ll advance in the state (tournament).’ As big as this game was, we’ll have another big one coming up a week from Friday. We’ll be aware of that every day from here on out.”
Sectional host Chesterton’s first game is May 29, a semifinal vs. the winner of Merrillville vs. Valparaiso, which is another way of saying it’s against the Vikings.
Barrett will be on the mound again for that one, but familiarity with him doesn’t help hitters the way that it can against many pitchers because he has equally good command of a wide variety of pitches that all have different movements and velocities.
“Everybody has a hard time figuring Troy out whether they’ve had three at bats or 30 at bats against him,” Bogner said. “He’s a different animal.”
By that, Bogner meant more than the variety of his stuff.
“Plus he’s got a heart that’s bigger than my belly,” Bogner said. “He’s just an absolute bulldog. You can’t coach that. You can’t teach that. It just comes from within.”
Barrett said that in the clincher, “I didn’t have my best stuff today and I was still able to get them out, so it’s good to know that even when I’m not at my best I can still get out one of the best teams in the state.”
Barrett, who hit a triple in the game, takes the mound confident that the offense and defense will be there for him.
“We have great players,” Barrett said. “Ethan stepped up big with that home run today. Everyone did their part and it makes it easier for me to do my job because I trust them to make plays behind me and drive me in if I get on base. We just have a great team.”
Barrett said that in the clincher, “I didn’t have my best stuff today and I was still able to get them out so it’s good to know that even when I’m not at my best I can still get out one of the best teams in the state.”
Once Chesterton defeated Crown Point and took a lead into the final inning the next day only to lose 5-4 he was confident the Trojans would win the DAC.
Glassman initially said that it first occurred to him that the Trojans had the makings of a DAC champion during the offseason, but then his memory forced a correction.
“Honestly, you could even take it as far back as when we were like 9 or 10,” Glassman said, which was right around the time of the previous most recent DAC championship. “I mean, I feel like everyone in the baseball community was always saying that my class and the class below us coming together, we were going to be really, really good.”
They were correct. The Trojans are ranked No. 4 in the 4A coaches poll, one spot behind Crown Point and one ahead of Valpo, two schools tied for second, two games behind Chesterton heading into today’s final day of the conference season.
Center Grove and Evansville North occupy the top two spots in the poll.
Until Tuesday Chesterton’s DAC championships all came under coach Jack Campbell. The years: 1972, 1977, 1982, 1985, 2013, 2017.