By Ben Grossberg
PBR Indiana

LAPORTE – Duneland Athletic Conference foes LaPorte and Chesterton met on Tuesday in a cool, windy afternoon. LaPorte missed some good opportunities to take the lead early and Chesterton took advantage grabbing the first lead and holding onto it throughout.

Chesterton’s Matt Kubacki had to work around some early threats from the LaPorte offense. Cameren Watt led off the bottom of the first going all the way to third when a ball hit off the right fielder’s glove. Kubacki worked out of the no out jam, not allowing the run to score. In the second LaPorte loaded the bases with one out but an attempted suicide squeeze was lined right back at Kubacki and he doubled off the runner at third to end the threat.

Chesterton’s offense finally got to LaPorte starter Jake Teets in the third inning. Teets had cruised through the first two innings picking up four strikeouts. In the third though Corey Rusboldt came through with a clutch two out hit, driving a ball into the right center gap bringing two runs around to score.

In the fourth Chesterton added to their lead with three more runs. After a walk and a bad throw on a sac bunt put runners on second and third Jeremy Jaeger brought in the run with a single and Kubacki helped himself out with a two run single giving Chesterton a 5-0 lead.

LaPorte broke through in the bottom of the fourth getting one of the runs back. Trevor Draves delivered a clutch two out RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-1.

In the bottom of the sixth LaPorte was almost able to come all the way back. Juan Silfa brought in the first run of the inning with a line drive single. Watt then brought in another run with a sacrifice fly and Matt Pritz delivered a two out RBI single to cut the lead to 5-4.

Chesterton took the momentum back in the seventh getting two runs back. Rusboldt had his second double of the game and Tyler Sufana followed that with a double of his own. Brandon Roseke then singled in Sufana to push Chesterton to a 7-4 lead.

Cole Teal, who replaced Kubacki in the sixth after one batter, stayed on the mound to finish off the save in the bottom of the seventh. He hit one batter, but easily set down the LaPorte offense to preserve the 7-4 win.

Matt Kubacki went five plus innings to get the win allowing two runs on five hits while striking out three.

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