By Steve Krah
The Elkhart Truth

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LAPORTE – Penn took its first IHSAA regional baseball championship since 2008 and the eighth all-time Saturday, June 6.

The Kingsmen (24-9) beat Chesterton 3-1 for the Class 4A LaPorte Regional crown. Penn plays Homestead at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 13, in the northern semistate at either Plymouth or Kokomo.

The latest diamond championship for the Kingsmen really had to be earned.

Chesterton (16-16) loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning against junior right-hander Riley Stratford (6-1) and Penn went to junior right-hander Skylar Szynski as a reliever. Szynski struck out both hitters he faced in the frame, but a run scored on a wild pitch. Pinch-runner Isaac Shook (running for senior Matt Kubacki, who singled) scored the run for the Trojans. Szynski fanned three more Trojans in the bottom of the seventh to seal the win.

“(Szynski) is a nice strong kid,” Kingsmen coach Greg Dikos said of the pitcher who tossed a two-hitter in a 3-0 semifinal win against Hammond Morton earlier in the day. “He came in and did the job.

“It’s tourney time and sometimes you’ve just got to reach back.”

Szynski, an Indiana University verbal commit, knew after the win against Morton that he might be called upon to pitch twice in the same day for the first time this season.

“The whole day, I just tried to stay loose,” Szynski said. “I felt like my curveball was doing really well today.

“Our defense was real strong tonight. I just had to throw strikes and they made the plays.”

Dikos said he did not think Szynski had his good stuff while warming up for his relief appearance.

“But the adrenaline took over,” Dikos said. “He was poppin,’”

Dikos said Stratford has strung together effective outings in his last few trips to the mound.

Sacrifice flies by junior Ryan Herman (second inning to score sophomore Nik Kavadas), sophomore Nolan Metcalf (third inning to plate senior Brooks Ullery) put the Kingsmen up 2-0.

Penn got another run in the sixth when junior Brandon Stesiak led off with an infield hit and later scored on a fielder’s  choice by Kavadas.

The Kingsmen used a “kiddie corps” of sorts to win Northern Indiana Conference, Plymouth Sectional and LaPorte Regional championships this spring. Penn has just two seniors on the varsity roster — second baseman Ullery and catcher Tim Lira — with contributions coming from several sophomores and eight freshmen eligible for tournament play.

“We had a long ways to go. If this team just keeps its head on straight, it has a lot of growing and a lot of learning and a lot of adjustments to make. They fight it sometimes, but that’s just from being young.” 

Semifinals

Penn 3, Hammond Morton 0

With Szynski dialed in, the Kingsmen bested Hammond Morton (20-5). The Indiana University verbal commit gave up just two infield singles with seven strikeouts. 

“He was on, he was awesome,” Dikos said of Szynski. “We can compete with anybody when Skylar’s on the mound.”

Governors senior right-hander Cody Earl  (8-2) worked into the sixth inning and fanned eight Penn batters. He gave up an unearned run in the second inning and two more runs in the sixth.

Chesterton used three unearned runs to best Northridge 4-2 in the other regional semifinal. The Raiders (sectional champions for the first time since 2002 and the first time in 4A) wound up the 2015 season at 23-6. 

Kubacki, a 6-foot-8 senior right-hander, earned the mound victory while junior right-hander Andrew Kennedy (7-2) absorbed the loss.

“It stings,” Northridge coach Andrew Brabender said. “We didn’t want to just get there, we wanted to win it. We didn’t play that well. Hats off the Chesterton. They battled and found some ways.” 

SophomoreTrevor Waite reached base on a two-out infield error and later scored the Kingsmen’s first run on a Earl wild pitch. 

“Earl was doing a fantastic job,” Dikos said. “He was hitting spots. 

“You could tell his elbow was dropping a little bit on that curveball and he was getting a little bit tired. I’m glad we were able to get to him that last inning.”

Penn strung together four straight hits to begin to the bottom of the sixth inning with sophomores Nolan Metcalf and Nik Kavadas driving in a run each.

“We’re champs in my book,” Governors coach Scott Lush said. “Nobody expected us to be here.

“I’m proud of these guys. They left it out on the field today.” 

Chesterton 4, Northridge 2 

Northridge broke on top in the top of the first inning when senior lead-off hitter Sam Troyer reached on a two-base error and scored on a single by freshman Nick Hooley.

The Raiders’ lead doubled in the second inning when No. 9 hitter Grant Miller, a senior, socked an RBI single. 

Chesterton scored three times in the bottom of the second inning. A one-out error meant that all three runs were unearned with sophomore Owen Hallas (groundout), senior Travis Brooks (infield hit) and Kubacki (single) each picking up an RBI. 

“It’s not a good feeling to play your last game of the season and not really play that well,” Brabender said. “We started to get hits early and (Kubacki) started to pitch us backward a little bit after that. 

“Everybody we talked to about him said that (Kubacki) was a very fast-heavy guy and we’re a fastball-hitting  team. After that first time through our lineup, he started throwing us breaking balls in fastball counts and then we started to adjust again. When you face a good hitter, it’s a constant adjustment.” 

John Thanos, the Trojans acting head coach, said Kubacki got the last six outs on “fumes.” 

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the state,” Thanos said. “He located his pitches.” 

The Raiders loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning, but did not score. Kubacki picked junior Andy Ross off third base for the second out.  

Chesterton got an insurance run in the sixth thanks to a two-out, run-scoring infield hit by senior No. 9 batter Cam O’Brien.