Cody Triscik has been key part of Porter County's success

By Mike clark Post-Tribune correspondent July 21, 2011 11:08PM

What the future holds for Cody Triscik is up in the air, which is one reason he’s enjoying the present so much.

Triscik and his Porter County Storm Black teammates in Lexington, Ky., participating in the four-year-old program’s first Senior Babe Ruth (16-18) Ohio Valley Regional after winning their first Northern Indiana state title last weekend in Chesterton.

Triscik, a pitcher/shortstop, played a huge role at state, bookending the title run with a 5-2 opening win over the South Bend Clay Merchants and a 3-1 title-game victory over the Hammond Hurricanes Black.

It played out exactly the way Storm manager Nick Doud expected with his ace on the mound.

“He’s been our guy for the last couple of years,” Doud said after the championship game. “Nobody better to give the ball to (in the final). Get to this game, put our best out there and see what happens.”

What has happened to get Triscik to this point is a bit unconventional. The 2010 Valparaiso grad moved on to Purdue North Central, where Doud is an assistant coach, and played last fall before leaving the team this spring to concentrate on academics.

But the right-hander takes pains to point out he didn’t walk away from the sport. “I gave up baseball in the spring; that doesn’t mean I wasn’t playing,” he said.

Doud combined the Storm’s Black and Red teams, using players like Triscik who weren’t competing in high school or college, and played an abbreviated spring schedule.

“And I watch baseball all the time,” Triscik said. “I’m always learning about the sport. Just because I didn’t really play in the spring doesn’t mean I had nothing to do with baseball.”

He’s worked on his pitching, in particular, an effort that has paid big dividends.

“Usually, I like to get started with a fastball, hit a corner,” Triscik said. “If I get ahead in the count, I can throw anything I want: come with the hook, maybe a changeup or a cutter. But I definitely like to get ahead with a first-pitch fastball.”

It’s been a winning formula so far for Triscik and the Storm (18-2-1), who are in the midst of a run that they hope will continue at the Ohio Valley Regional, which serves as a qualifier for the Senior Babe Ruth World Series scheduled for Aug. 6-13 in Euphrata, Wash.

“We know it’s going to be a lot harder,” Triscik said of the regional. “We’ve just got to be ready for anything.”

He is taking the same approach to his baseball future. He’s planning to transfer this fall to Indiana State, where he is considering trying to walk on for the baseball team.

“You never know,” he said. “Even if I just try, even if I don’t play, it’s a good experience. They’re a D-I school. ... They have (Crown Point’s Josh) Negele on the team and (Lake Central’s Kurt) Kudrecki. It’d be nice to have another guy on the team from the DAC.”