Glassman to Prater to McClelland double play, momentum and ultimately the game to Trojans, 5-1 winners over LaPorte to run winning streak to eight games

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

It’s fitting that the sport’s most famous poem “Tinker to Evers to Chance” is about a double play combination because nothing in baseball demonstrates poetry in motion the way as fluidly as a twin-killing in the middle of the infield.
On Wednesday evening at LaPorte’s Schreiber Field, rather than Tinkers to Evers to Chance, it was
Glassman to Prater to McClelland, too many syllables for poetry but every bit as soothing for onlookers on one side and and just as deflating for those on the other.
The fourth-inning play stood up as the catalyst for Chesterton’s 5-1 comeback victory to complete a two-day sweep of the Slicers and extend the Trojans’ winning streak to eight games.
Already leading 1-0, LaPorte loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth. Chesterton drew its infield in. The hitter grounded to the right side, putting the spotlight for the remainder of the inning on second baseman Isaiah Prater.
“Very nerve-racking,” Prater said.
He didn’t show it.
He fielded the ball and showed how to be fast without hurrying, not always such an easy balancing act. His throw to catcher Caden Hackett was in time for the force. That was the first out and the infield drew back to double play depth. The next groundball up the middle was fielded by shortstop Ethan Glassman, who placed and timed the short feed perfectly and Prater turned it seamlessly, firing the ball to first baseman Eli McClelland in plenty of time.
“Very smooth,” pitcher John Knight said of Prater turning the double play.
Bang, bang, and the momentum shifted.
The scoreboard still showed the host team with a 1-0 lead, but somehow the Slicers instantly felt like the underdogs.
“It was probably one of the most electric plays I’ve been a part of and we needed it more than ever right there,” Chesterton leadoff hitter/center fielder/closer Rob Czarniecki said. “I knew we were close. We just couldn’t crack down the door to get any runs in, but when we turned that double play, I really felt the whole team break through, and as the scoreboard showed, the rest came after it. If we didn’t get that, I don’t think we’d win this game tonight.”
Coach John Bogner, whose team gave him his 200th career victory as a high school coach, had a similar feeling.
“The energy of baseball, right?” Bogner said. “We just made a big play in the field, now we’re going to go.”
No better time to go than when the top of the order comes to the plate. In Czarniecki and fellow senior Troy Barrett, the Trojans have two hitters who not only have power but the situational skills to deliver whatever’s needed. Not only that, they bring so much speed there is no point in wasting an out on a sacrifice bunt when they can get into scoring position by stealing the base. Not many high school teams anywhere hit a starting pitcher in the face with a duo as dynamic as the two Division I recruits.
The Trojans had the good fortune of their spots coming up at a time the adrenaline from the double play still flowed faster than Nate Vaughan.
“It’s great having Troy behind me,” Czarniecki said. “After we had that double play, we just kind of looked at each other like, ‘It’s time to go now.’ Troy’s one of the hardest hitters to strike out I’ve ever seen. I know if I can get in scoring position, he’s going to put the ball in play. I have a lot of confidence in him behind me.”
Czarniecki got into scoring position and then some. He found the gap in right-center, thinking triple right out of the box, and didn’t need to slide into third.
Barrett has had days where he has hit the ball harder than he did Wednesday, but the box score shows he went 4 for 4. There is something to be said for speedy players putting the ball in play. He followed Czarniecki’s triple by beating out an infield hit for the second time, and the game was tied. Barrett then stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on McClelland’s groundout to the right side, putting the Trojans up 2-1.
Chesterton loaded the bases when Hackett was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game and Knight and Glassman reached on walks, but the Slicers escaped.
In the bottom of the inning, Knight’s strong day on the mound (4-⅔ innings, four hits, one earned run, two walks, four strikeouts) ended when with two outs he hit Chad Rusboldt with a pitch. Coming off a terrific start last Friday, Dylan Bradford replaced Knight, threw a pitcher’s pitch that No. 3 hitter Cody Benedict turned into a double to left. Czarniecki replaced Bradford for a high-drama moment, a clash of a power pitcher staring down a power hitter, cleanup man Joey Kirk. Czarniecki won the confrontation when Kirk swung through Strike 3, another uplifting moment for the Trojans. They added two runs in the sixth, and another in the seventh when Glassman doubled and scored on Nate Redman’s single. Czarniecki closed the game, finishing with 2-⅓ no-hit innings with three strikeouts and two walks.
“We’re having a lot of fun,” Czarniecki said after earning the save, Knight the win.
Added Prater: “It was our goal to sweep them. I know our coaches wanted it really bad, especially since it was Coach Bogner’s 200th win. That was a good comeback, down 1-0 and winning 5-1, stringing together hits and working together.”
Asked what he will remember most about the milestone victory, Bogner said, “The way the kids fought back.”
In his third season at Chesterton, Bogner came to the school from Highland, where he was head coach for nine seasons spread over 10 years, thanks to COVID-19 wiping out the 2020 season.
Highland’s current head coach, Sam Michel, and assistant Austin Pizer surprised Bogner by coming to the game.
“That was nice of them to do that,” Bogner said.
The coach looked back on No. 100: “We had a walkoff win against Crown Point. Our kid got hit with the bases loaded and my wife came walking through with balloons and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s a hundred.’ I almost forgot it was 100.”
Several Trojans gave him pleasant memories from No. 200.
Chesterton 11, LaPorte 1: Hackett, Knight and Redman drove in two runs apiece and Czarniecki had three hits, including his third home run, drove in three runs and scored two in leading the Trojans in the series-opener at home.
Barrett went all five innings and allowed one run, one walk and four hits and struck out seven.