MISHAWAKA — Penn senior Bennett Hartford slid headfirst into home plate in the fifth inning of the Kingsmen’s second baseball game in a doubleheader against Carmel Saturday, April 11 at Greg Dikos Field, beating the throw from right field to give his squad a three-run lead over the Greyhounds. He quickly jumped to his feet and shouted in excitement as Penn cheered him on from the bleachers and the dugout.
The Hillsdale College commit was the No. 14 Kingsmen’s most energetic player against No. 21 Carmel, and he backed it up on the field. Across both games, Hartford went 4-for-6 with two doubles and three RBIs, helping Penn sweep its weekend doubleheader against the largest school in Indiana, 2-1 and 11-7.
“Watching other guys play with emotion just gets everybody else going,” Hartford said. “You see another guy hyped up, it’s pretty hard not to be hyped up yourself … It comes down to grit and having each other’s backs. If you know the guy next to you is going to step up if you don’t, it makes it a lot easier to come back from a deficit, especially against a good team like Carmel.”
In his 39th season as the Kingsmen’s head coach, Greg Dikos wants his players — especially the 13 seniors — to play like Hartford did.
“Take every game like it’s your last, we’ve always talked about that,” Dikos said. “Respect the game, don’t take a pitch off.”
In game one, senior Purdue commit Cayden Stockbridge certainly did that a few times when he escaped a couple of frames with an inning-ending strikeout to strand Greyhounds on base. Later that same game, Mason Biernacki was fired up when he struck a Carmel batter out to clinch a 2-1 win.
The soft-spoken sophomore admitted he doesn’t often celebrate, but it was hard for a game-winning strikeout to not draw that emotion out of him.
“It felt like a big moment,” Biernacki said. “It comes with a lot of fight.”
Penn trailed 1-0 the entire first game until the bottom of the fifth inning. Sophomore Panayoti Limberopoulos got a one-out single, then senior Brody Cashen was hit by a pitch. Senior Jackson Trenerry hit a ground ball to second base, and after getting the first out of an attempted double play, Carmel junior shortstop threw the ball away from Greyhounds senior first baseman Jacob Behm, which allowed Limberopoulos to score.
Back-to-back singles from seniors Ben Dhaemers and Hartford in the bottom of the sixth led to Dhaemers coming around to score after an error by Carmel senior third baseman Silas Neal, which gave the Kingsmen a 2-1 lead.
After five innings of work on the mound, Stockbridge threw 95 pitches, struck out eight, walked three, allowed two hits, hit one by pitch and allowed one earned run. It was up to Biernacki in relief to secure Penn a one-run win in game one, which he did with two strikeouts in the seventh.
The Greyhounds committed four errors in the loss, and Dikos said that was the biggest factor that led to a Penn victory.
“We didn’t win it; they lost it, and we took advantage of it,” Dikos said. “We made sure we shut the door on them.”
In the first inning of game two, Dhaemers continued his hot streak at the plate with a two-RBI double to deep left field. Penn scored two more runs without getting another hit in the inning to lead 4-0 heading into the second.
Carmel battled back for a run in the second inning then five in the third to take a 6-4 lead. The Kingsmen immediately responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third to grab a 7-6 lead, two of those runs being driven in by a double from Biernacki.
In the fifth, Greyhounds senior Jacob Behm ripped a single up the middle to tie the game at seven apiece. Penn sophomore Limberopoulos led off the bottom of the frame with a ground-rule double over the left field fence, then senior Jackson Trenerry drove him in with a go-ahead RBI single just two batters later.
The Kingsmen scored three more runs in the inning thanks to a RBI double from Hartford and a RBI single from sophomore Bentley Baird. Biernacki closed out the game on the mound once again to secure an 11-7 victory.
After the two victories, Penn is 5-0 to start the 2026 season after going 28-2 last season. The Kingsmen captured their 25th IHSAA 4A sectional title before losing to Goshen, 4-2, in the regional championship game.
Although they lost more than 10 seniors, Hartford is confident that won’t stop the Kingsmen from dominance once again this spring.
“We harped on it from day one — we are not last year’s team,” Hartford said. “We have to play our own baseball.”
Penn’s six-time state champion head coach feels like they’re doing that so far.
“When you win, it’s easy to be happy and smiling,” Dikos said. “We’ll see if we keep it up.”
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Penn baseball continues hot 2026 start with sweep vs Carmel
Reporting by Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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