Baseball: Chester leads Panthers at the plate

It took David Chester some extra time to find his way to Pitt.

He started near Collinsville,… It took David Chester some extra time to find his way to Pitt.

He started near Collinsville, Okla., spending four years playing baseball, basketball and football in high school. After graduation, he attended an Oklahoma community college for two years so that he could continue with baseball, his sport of choice.

Chester thrived at the junior college. As a freshman, he finished with a .349 batting average, 18 home runs and 52 RBIs. As a preseason All-America selection his sophomore year, he hit .370, drove in 72 runs and hit 18 home runs.

After two seasons of putting up those numbers, a Division I baseball team came calling.

“Pitt came after me pretty hard, and I came on a visit,” Chester said. “I went to a basketball game, and I really liked it. So I decided to come here and signed early. I’ve loved it ever since.”

Pitt loves having him around, too. Since the transfer at the beginning of his junior year, Chester has started all but three games at first base for the Panthers.

Now a redshirt senior, Chester provides much of the power at the plate for head coach Joe Jordano’s Panthers.

“David can change a game in a big way — fast. In any park under any conditions David’s bat is a threat,” Jordano said in an e-mail. “It’s exciting to watch.”

Coming off a season where Chester hit a team-high 15 home runs, drove in 63 runs and was named a third-team All-Big East player, the 6-foot-5, 270-pound slugger faced high expectations heading into the 2011 campaign.

Now, more than 20 games into the season, Chester hasn’t failed to deliver.

Chester has become a staple in Pitt’s lineup as the notorious cleanup batter, consistently hitting fourth in the batting order. And despite the new, deeper Petersen Sports Complex — a harder place to hit home runs than Pitt’s previous home at Trees Field — Chester currently leads the Panthers (13-9, 1-2 Big East) with 25 runs batted in and five home runs.

“It’s awesome and definitely a major improvement,” Chester said of the new stadium. “It’s a little bigger than last year, which is the only thing that stinks, but the ball can still fly out of there.”

A recent six-game hitting streak earned Chester recognition as the Big East Player of the Week for the week ending on March 20. In that week alone, he tallied four home runs, 10 hits and 11 RBIs. Fellow senior Travis Whitmore said Chester’s offensive abilities help make him a team leader.

“We look to him for big hits, and when he does well, we do well,” he said.

Chester also helps guide the team with his attitude, Whitmore added.

“He plays the game hard and respects it,” Whitmore said. “No matter what the score is, he’s playing hard, and it helps the other guys, too.”

Beyond his ability to hit the long ball, Chester’s fielding talents ensure that he is an everyday player for Pitt. Over the 72 games that the first baseman has played in his Pitt career, Chester has amassed a .995 fielding percentage by committing just three errors.

“He’s an anchor at first base,” Jordano said.

Chester said that he takes pride in his defense, adding that it’s a focus of the coaches.

“We’ve got some good coaches that help out and teach us well [on defense],” he said.

With his combined abilities to put runs on the board and keep opponents from doing the same, it’s no surprise that Chester has caught the eye of Major League Baseball scouting websites focusing on the upcoming draft in June.

But for now, Chester is just concentrating on enjoying his senior season at Pitt and helping the team win.

“You can’t think about [the prospect of being drafted] too much,” Chester said. “The thought has crossed my mind, but I feel like the better I play now, the more wins we’ll get, and the more chance I’ll have of playing in the pros. We’d like to make a run at the Big East tournament this year.”