Brayden Cortwright had one thought when he relieved Grant Brunt in the fourth inning.
Keep mowing them down.
The junior pitcher did that on Wednesday in Chesterton’s 4-3 Duneland Athletic Conference victory over host Crown Point.
Cortwright gave up just one hit and struck out six. That was the only hit Chesterton gave up.
Cortwright was better than Brunt and they were both very good. Brunt struggled with his control, giving up five walks.
“I just wanted to throw strikes,” Cortwright said. “That’s all I was thinking about.”
Said Chesterton coach Jack Campbell: “When he throws strikes, he’s really good. He’s 6-foot-7. He can be intimidating.”
Campbell thought this game might turn out like Tuesday’s series opener against the Bulldogs.
The Trojans (3-4, 2-2) gave up two runs in the seventh inning and then lost that game 5-3 in 11 innings.
That was a tough one to swallow.
Chesterton’s rough inning on Wednesday came in the third when Brunt had all five of his walks. There was also an error and a hit batter that led to all of Crown Point’s runs.
Campbell couldn’t get Tuesday’s game out of his head even though he said he usually doesn’t let the past bother him.
“I was thinking about last night,” Campbell said of the third inning. “Nobody tries to make errors. It happens. You gotta say, “Ok, I can’t do anything about it now.’ You have to move on. Baseball is a game of failure. You can’t let it beat you up.”
Chris Boren’s run-scoring single in the fourth gave Cortwright all the margin he needed.
Cortwright was sick on Tuesday with a stomach issue and he missed school.
He finished off the Bulldogs (4-3, 2-1) when he struck out Brandon Haczynski looking in the seventh with a runner on third and two outs.
Crown Point coach Steve Strayer said his team needs to work on its hitting.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “We gave one today and they gave us one last night (Tuesday). We’ve got work to do.”
Strayer also was upset with his team’s defense. They dropped two foul balls among three errors.
“We gave them the game when you think about it,” he said. “Those three errors just killed us. I don’t know. I guess we lost a little bit of our edge.”
Twitter @MikeHuttonPT
