REGION COLLEGIANS: Former Chiefs Having Successful Baseball Season

Indiana University has been on a roll. You could say Dustin DeMuth and Scott Donley have provided a lot of the butter.

DeMuth (LaPorte) and Donley (Crown Point), starting infielders and former Duneland Conference rivals, have helped the Hoosiers to an 18-game winning streak, the best in Division I in 2013.

IU is off to a 25-3 start as of Saturday, including 8-0 in the Big Ten

DeMuth, a Highland native, is hitting .368 with 21 runs, eight doubles, one triple, one homer, and 18 RBIs.

Donley, a transfer from Virginia Tech, is second on the team with a .383 average. He has added 19 runs, nine doubles, three homers, a team-high 37 RBIs, and has a .589 slugging percentage.

* Michigan State’s Tony Cheky (Portage) is second in the Big Ten with 15 stolen bases in 16 attempts. It has been a great start for the sophomore starting center fielder, who had a team-high 15 stolen bases all of last season.

Cheky has scored 17 runs, added six doubles, a homer, and six RBIs. He’s hitting .333 for the Spartans (17-10, 2-3 Big Ten).

* Another region combination has Heartland Community College off to an impressive start. Cody Dykema (Lake Central) and Kenny Mahala (Andrean) have the Heartland Hawks, ranked No. 14 nationally in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II poll, riding an 18-3 record.

Dykema is hitting .409, starting all 21 games, with a team-best 22 runs, to go with four doubles and 10 RBI. The UIC transfer has also swiped 13 stolen bases in as many attempts.

Mahala, a Highland native and Ball State transfer, is batting .304 with 12 runs and 12 RBI. He has also made one appearance on the mound for the Hawks, who are 14-3 in the Mid-West Athletic Conference.

*Jordan Peterson (Chesterton) picked up his fifth victory – and his fifth complete game – on Saturday for St. Joseph’s College.

The 6-foot-5, 215-pound sophomore has started seven games, going 5-1 with a 2.29 ERA. He’s struck out 47 and walked only five in a team-high 55 innings pitched.

Peterson has helped the Pumas (15-8, 12-4 Great Lakes Valley Conference) to an NCAA Division-II best strikeout-to-walk ratio and walks allowed per nine innings.

Teammate Craig Austgen (Lowell) is hitting .273 with three doubles and eight RBIs.

St. Joseph’s has a six-game winning streak after a pair of 7-3 wins over Kentucky Wesleyan College on Saturday.

* Carson-Newman’s Kevin Franchetti (Andrean) is tops on the team with seven homers and second on the team with 23 RBIs. The senior catcher and Highland native has started 36 of 37 games and is batting .244 with 22 runs.

* Georgetown’s Thomas Polus (Andrean) is 2-3 this season for the Hoyas (17-10). The senior lefty has 28 strikeouts in 40 innings pitched.

Women’s track

Purdue’s Megan Plenus (Lake Central) won the 800-meter run with a personal-best time of 2:11.97 at the SEC-Big Ten Challenge March 22-23 in Starkville, Mississippi.

Men’s track

Ryan Cutter (Chesterton) keeps breaking records at IUPUI. The redshirt freshman broke the school record in the 5,000-meters on Friday at the Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio.

Cutter finished in 14:41.51, breaking his own personal-best mark by 45 seconds, and becoming just the fourth IUPUI runner to break 15 minutes in school history.

IUPUI is coached by Valparaiso High grad Chuck Koeppen.

Women’s tennis

Indiana University’s Katie Klyczek (Andrean) has helped the No. 32-ranked Hoosiers to four straight victories, after Saturday’s 4-1 win over Iowa.

Klyczek, a Munster native, won at No. 3 doubles and added the point at No. 2 singles where she beat Shelby Talcott 7-6, 6-4.

The sophomore is ranked 112th nationally in singles and has guided the Hoosiers to a 15-5 record, including 4-2 in the Big Ten.

The Times welcomes information about local athletes for inclusion in Region Collegians. E-mail Brian Waddle at bjwaddle@comcast.net.