Debut’s have been a good thing for the Chesterton baseball team early in the season.

Jeremy Ross made his inaugural apperance of the season for the Trojans on Wednesday night and went 3-for-3 and knocked a three-run home run in the sixth inning to lift Chesterton to a 5-2 Duneland Athletic Conference victory over Valparaiso.

“It was a nice debut for Jeremy,” Chesterton coach Jack Campbell said. “He hit the ball well. They were big hits.”

Valparaiso scored the game’s first run thanks to the Trojans’ lone error of the game. An RBI single in the second inning pushed the Viking lead to 2-0.

Kevin Gates singled to start the Chesterton half of the second inning, but was forced out at second on a ground ball off the bat of Ryan Lindquist. Lindquist moved to second on a throwing error, third on a ground out by Detmar and scored on a passed ball.

After Dre’ Dukes singled and stole second, Ross singled to tie the game at 2-2.

From there, Gates dominated the Viking hitters in picking up his second win of the season. Gates allowed seven hits and struck out nine.

“They took an early lead, but Kevin (Gates) settled down and really pitched well,” Campbell said. “He had good command of all his pitches. He felt good about it and so did we.”

In the sixth, Gates singled and Danny Detmar walked ahead of Ross. Ross’ 3-run homer cleared the left field fence to set the final score.

“We started three guys that hadn’t played all year,” Campbell said. “The goal in the first five games is to get everyone in and sort things out. We’ve got a pretty good idea right now.

“It’s difficult because we’ve got a lot of kids that are playing pretty well. We have to work guys in there and it won’t be easy.”

The Trojans return to the field tonight as they travel to Portage for a 4:30 scheduled start.

Chesterton 5, Valparaiso 2

AT CHESTERTON

SCORING BY INNINGS

Valparaiso 110 000 0 -- 2 7 2

Chesterton 020 003 x -- 5 7 1

2B -- Jeremy Ross (C). HR -- Jeremy Ross (C). Pitching summary -- Valparaiso -- Gabe Dobbins (6 IP, 7 H, 2 K, 3 BB); Chesterton -- Kevin Gates (7 IP, 7 H, 9 K, 3 BB). WP -- Gates (2-0). LP -- Dobbins.

Posted 4/10/2008