By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
MITCHELL – Legendary and fiery Baltimore manager Earl Weaver famously stated “momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher.” Bedford North Lawrence sent its best to the small hill for a big shift from the negative momentum of an opening blowout to the positive pleasure of victory.
Cutler Chastain, a flashy left-hander with wicked stuff, started his junior campaign with the expected dominance. He combined with reliever Cam Gates for a dazzling one-hitter as the Stars shut down West De Pere 9-2 on Friday evening.
BNL made the most of limited offense, collecting only three hits but taking advantage of nine walks (from five different pitchers) and four errors. That was plenty of support for Chastain, who gave up a fourth-inning home run to Logan Wierzba with a too-cute changeup on a full-count delivery. When he fired his fastball, which has been hitting 90 mph on radar guns this offseason, he was untouchable while striking out eight. Gates worked two innings of relief with three strikeouts.
After a depressing 20-2 loss at Floyd Central in the season opener, this type of pitching performance was exactly what the Stars (1-1) required.
”That’s what we needed, bouncing back,” BNL coach Steven McNabb said. “They did exactly what we needed them to do. They’re veterans, they’ve been around, they know what it takes and what’s expected. They did a great job.”
Chastain, who has verbally committed to Indiana State, was a menace for the Phantoms (2-1). His only blemish during his 82-pitch outing was the blast by Wierzba, who is destined for Iowa Western Junior College. Following a lead-off walk, Wierzba crushed a ball way over the left-field fence at Seitzinger Field.
Everybody else was locked in the phantom zone.
“I pounded the zone,” Chastain said. “It got away from me a little in the end, but I went right at guys. The fastball was working. Later in the game, it was mixing it up and giving them different looks.
“We were down a little after the loss. It was good to bounce back and get a win for our guys.”
BNL did its necessary damage during a four-run second. Jackson Jones stroked a two-run single during that frame. Gates followed with a line drive to third that infielder Sammy Berg appeared to snag and start a triple-play. But the base umpire ruled the ball was trapped by Berg, so one of the outs was wiped out and another run scored.
In the fifth, Chase Rynders hammered a RBI double to deep right-center for a 7-2 lead, and BNL added two more in the sixth (Gates scored on a wild pitch and Grayson Gillespie lofted a sacrifice fly).
”We executed in some situations, we took what they gave us,” McNabb said. “That’s important in baseball, don’t try to do too much. You pounce on those mistakes.”
West De Pere, making an annual Spring Break bonding trip to Indiana for competition, left miserable 30-degree weather in Wisconsin to run into the Chastain-Gates freezer. The Phantoms started the journey with a win at Seymour on Thursday, then conquered Mitchell in the nightcap of the split doubleheader. That’s why BNL made the short trip to Mitchell for the successful encounter.
“We had heard about the pitcher, we knew he was tough,” West De Pere coach Joe Rukamp said. “I give him credit. It’s good for us to see that kind of pitching. We’re hoping to make a deep run later in our season, and we have to face pitching like that. We have to play better around it.”
BNL will host Silver Creek on Tuesday.
