Reliever Zach Fender to the rescue for the Trojans as he hurries his way to a save in varsity pitching debut

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A three-year starting outfielder for Chesterton’s varsity baseball team, Nick Foust experienced a first Thursday in the Trojans’ season-opening 7-4 win at New Prairie, his first varsity home run, a grand slam no less.
Yet, it took discussing the opening day feat of a classmate whose journey to the varsity field of competition took a good deal longer.
“How about Zach Fender?” Foust said, shifting the topic from his grand slam to the right-handed reliever who picked up the save. “First varsity appearance, coming in with the bases loaded, lot of pressure, knowing he had to work fast because the sun’s going down and then he freaking dominated.”
Knowing that if the game could not be completed because of darkness the score would revert to what it was after the most recent completed inning, in this case New Prairie 2, Chesterton 1, Fender warmed up in a hurry after taking over for Dylan Bradford in the seventh inning, the bases loaded, one out and the Trojans leading 7-4.
Fender struck out the first batter he faced, getting him to swing through a high fastball as the grains of sand in the egg timer kept pace with the gathering dusk. Fender’s grunts as he delivered his pitches could be heard high in the bleachers. Two outs. Up four runs. He walked the next batter. Up three runs, two outs, not many grains of sand left. In the nick of time, Fender earned the save by getting the final hitter to fan at a curveball.
Afterward, coach John Bogner gave him ‘attaboy words.
“Next time you come in and shut someone down like that, I don’t want you to be surprised,” Bogner told him. “That was a (3A) returning state champion you just shut down. You’ll be coming in in bigger spots than that.”
Fender was wild high at first and was bailed out when a hitter swung at Ball 4 and fouled off a pitch. But he got it together impressively enough to make his varsity debut a most memorable one.
“I took a deep breath, regrouped and just pounded the zone,” Fender said.
He said he was convinced he was going to enter the game.
“You have to have the mentality that you’re going to play, so I had to stay in there mentally,” he said. “I knew I was going to pitch, and I got the job done. I just had a feeling I was going to pitch. That was definitely my best moment of high school so far.”
Fender’s save made Troy Barrett’s six-inning, 12-strikeout effort stand up as another win for the junior left-hander, who is 8-1 in his varsity career.
“He’s one of the few kids who really wants it bad,” Chesterton second-year coach John Bogner said of Fender. “Sink or swim, he was going to stay out there. He bulldogged through it. That’s what we need. We need to put those guys in those positions early.”