The Chesterton baseball team got back on the winning track with a 9-4 Duneland Athletic Conference victory over Merrillville Tuesday night at CHS.

“We wanted to get back to playing the way we were playing before the loss to Lake Central,” Chesterton coach Jack Campbell said. “We got some key hits. It was a good team for us to play right now.”

The Trojan bats got started right away as they scored eight runs over the first three innings. Offensively, Ryan Lindquist and Evan Parana led the charge with two hits each. Parana tallied a home run, while Lindquist stole two bases in the win.

“Evan had been struggling, but he’s getting it going,” Campbell said. “He hit a home run and is starting to swing the bat better. Ryan had a couple of hits too.”

Dan Detmar picked up the win for the Trojans (12-4, 8-3) after going five innings, allowing six hits and striking out three. Glenn Peterson worked the final two innings and struck out four batters.

“We started Detmar and he threw pretty well,” Campbell said. “He even had a three-pitch inning.”

The Trojans return to the field on Thursday when they host No. 1 Crown Point beginning at 4:30 p.m.

“We’ve got Crown Point, LaPorte and Michigan City left,” Campbell said. “We control things ourselves if we’ll play some good baseball down the stretch.”

Chesterton 9, Merrillville 4

AT CHESTERTON

SCORING BY INNINGS

Merrillville 000 112 0 -- 4 10 3

Chesterton 233 100 x -- 9 9 3

2B -- Xavier Ponce, Donnie Cox (M). 3B -- Kevin Gates, Dan Detmar (C). HR -- Evan Parana (C). Pitching Summary -- Merrillville -- Patrick Nawracaj (4 IP, 8 H, 3 K, 2 BB), Ryan Stokes (2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K); Chesterton -- Dan Detmar (5 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 K), Glenn Peterson (2 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 K). WP -- Detmar (2-0). LP -- Nawracaj.

Posted 5/7/2008