By TR HARLAN

That’s twice.

For the second time this season, the Chesterton baseball team and head coach Jack Campbell leave a game against No. 1 Crown Point knowing they had a chance to win.

On Thursday night, the Trojans made just enough little mistakes to drop a 4-3 Duneland Athletic Conference game to the Bulldogs.

“We did to0 many things to lose this game,” Campbell said. “We gave them three unearned runs. It’s just the little things. They weren’t big, major errors. It was just little things we didn’t do right.

“That’s two tough ones we’ve lost to them.”

Chesterton (12-5, 9-4) opened the scoring in the second inning when Ryan Lindquist doubled to right field with one out. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on De’Andre Dukes’ RBI ground out.

Crown Point (18-2, 10-2) answered back in the top of the third, but not by themselves.

After a pop out to start the inning, Scott Donley swung through a high fastball from Chesterton starter Kevin Gates for a third strike, but reached first as the ball sailed to the backstop. Donley stole second, reached third on a fly out and scored on a passed ball to tie the score.

Jeff Limbaugh’s RBI double plated Mike Kozlowski with the go-ahead run.

“Kevin threw the type of game I thought he was capable of,” Campbell said. “He was around the strike zone all the time. They hit a couple of balls hard, but nothing to serious.

“He threw strikes and that’s all you can ask for.”

Chesterton tied the game in the fourth when Dukes beat out an infield single and moved to second on a ground out by Evan Parana. When Pat Antone’s ground ball up the middle was misplayed by CP’s second baseman, Dukes scored all the way from second to tie the game at 2-all.

Crown Point put an end to Gates’ night in the sixth when Limbaugh singled to center field to start the frame. One out later, Josh Negele singled to center and put runners on first and third. A sacrifice fly of Mascarello’s bat scored Limbaugh and moved Negele to second as the throw home got all the way to the backstop.

Jordan Lindeman’s double scored Negele for a 4-2 Bulldog lead.

“They’ve played enough baseball over the years and throughout the summer that we shouldn’t make those mistakes,” Campbell said. “We have something to practice tomorrow.”

Chesterton tried to mount a final rally in the seventh inning against Mascarello. Gates’ one-out double to right-center field was followed by an RBI single from Zack Novak to pull the Trojans within 4-3.

A walk to Jeremy Ross pushed the tying run into scoring position, but the Trojans didn’t get the big hit.

“(CP starter Blake) Mascarello threw a nice game,” Campbell said. “He’s headed to Purdue to throw for them next year. He didn’t do anything spectacular, but he was around the plate and didn’t hurt himself.”

Chesterton returns to the field on Tuesday when they host Michigan City beginning at 4:30 p.m.

“We still have two more games to play,” Campbell said. “Michigan City and LaPorte won’t be two easy games either. We had our fate in our hands. We did it to ourselves.”

Crown Point 4, Chesterton 3

AT CHESTERTON

SCORING BY INNING

Crown Point 002 002 0 – 4 9 2

Chesterton 010 100 1 – 3 8 2

2B – Jeff Limbaugh, Jordan Lindeman (CP); Ryan Lindquist, Kevin Gates (C). Pitching Summary – Crown Point – Blake Mascarello (6 1/3 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 3 K), Mike Kozlowski (2/3 IP, 0 K, 1 BB, 1 K); Chesterton – Kevin Gates (5 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 BB, 1 K), Glenn Peterson (1 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 K). WP – Mascarello (4-0). LP – Gates.

Posted 5/9/2008