Baseball Recap: Portage Takes Down Merrillville in a Playoff Battle

It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Portage had no problem doing just that on Wednesday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand the Merrillville Pirates a 5-0 shutout. The Indians haven't had any issues with the Pirates recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive victory against them.

Portage got a great performance from Kaleb Hacker as he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out six over five innings pitched. Hacker also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because the Indians are 4-2 when he allows at most three earned runs, but 8-10-2 otherwise.

Kodie Young

Stolen Base

05/28/25 vs Merrillville	2
04/23/25 @ Valparaiso	2
04/15/25 vs Merrillville	2
04/10/25 vs Michigan City	2
04/08/25 @ Michigan City	2
+ 6 more games

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Kodie Young, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with two stolen bases and one run. He has become a key player for Portage: the team is 4-1 when he posts at least two stolen bases, but 8-11-2 otherwise. Williams De Gracia was another key player, going 2-for-4 with one triple, one run, and one RBI.

The win got Portage back to even at 12-12-2. As for Merrillville, they have traveled a rocky road recently, having lost 14 of their last 16 matches. That's put a noticeable dent in their 5-23 record this season.

Portage will face off against Chesterton at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The Indians' pitchers better be ready for this one: the Trojans have averaged an impressive 6.6 runs per game this season. Merrillville does not have any more games scheduled as of now.