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Harlem snaps 9-game baseball losing streak to Boylan
Watch: Harlem snaps 9-game baseball losing streak to Boylan in final inning
Don’t count Boylan out.
Boylan is not like the Boylan of old. The school is less than half the size it was when Steve Goers coached the Titans to 17 boys basketball conference titles in 20 years and Dan Appino coached a football team that won 75 conference games in a row and two state football titles.
Boylan is no longer a juggernaut in any sport. The boys basketball team has just had its first two losing seasons in more than 40 years. The football team hasn’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs since 2019. And now the baseball team (7-13, 2-3 in the NIC-10) is headed toward only its second losing season in 27 years.
But the Titans remain proud and defiant. That basketball team ended the regular season on a 1-21 slide, yet rebounded to win a regional title on a stunning late 3-pointer. The football team led at halftime against perhaps the second-best Class 4A team in the state — Coal City went on to lose 21-14 in the semifinals to Chicago DePaul, which won by a running clock in the state title game the next week.
And the baseball team lost 4-3 Wednesday to NIC-10 preseason favorite Harlem, leading the league’s best pitcher until the final inning. Jake Elliot’s one-out, two-run single down the right field line helped the Huskies (12-7, 4-1) snap a nine-game losing streak to Boylan. All-conference right-hander Jackson Heidemann allowed only one base runner (on an error) after the third inning.
“I’ve gotten bailed out twice now due to Finn (Stovall) and Jake. My team picked me up,” said Heidemann, who last week beat five-time defending NIC-10 champ Hononegah on a two-run homer in the final inning by Stovall.
In so many ways, Aidan Baluch is now who Boylan is. The Titans, who have won at least 20 games five years in a row, graduated all three of their first-team all-conference players from last year. No one on the current team stands out. They are now a team full of players who simply try to do things right. Like Baluch.
Baluch kept the Titans ahead Wednesday, but it wasn’t impressive. He wasn’t trying to be.
“My goal is to get a ground ball,” said Baluch, who had more walks (five) than strikeouts (three) but held Boylan to two runs, only one earned, in 4 ⅔ innings. “I want to get an easy an out as possible. It may not be overpowering. It may be just getting ground balls and pop-outs.”
Boylan did the same on offense, scratching out one run in each of the first three innings.
“Boylan does the little things right,” Harlem coach Scott McCloy said. “They put the ball in play. They steal bases. Those three runs they manufactured was just really good baseball.”
But three Boylan relievers couldn’t put Harlem away. The Huskies walked nine times. A lost ball in the sun in right field and a little bit of a bad hop to shortstop also hurt, leading to Harlem’s only two runs in the first six innings.
“Walks have been killing us all year,” said leadoff hitter Ryder McCauley, who had two hits and scored Boylan’s first run. “If we can work that down, we’re going to be a great team.”
The Titans remain a defiant team, wearing BOYLAN across their chests as proudly as ever.
“We can still beat the favorites at any time,” Baluch said. “No matter what happens, we will always be in the fight.”
No one knows more about Boylan’s heights than coach Matt Weber. He was Appino’s first quarterback at Boylan. He was a star guard for Goers. And he pitched Boylan to the 2003 state finals, the only NIC-10 baseball team to reach the title game in over 50 years.
Weber doesn’t think Boylan’s glory days are over. Maybe just interrupted for a short time.
“One day when we are juggernauts again,” Weber vowed, “we will let everyone know about that. You can put that in the paper.”
NIC-10 baseball standings
Freeport, 5-0
Harlem, 4-1
Hononegah, 4-1
Guilford, 4-1
Belvidere North, 3-2
Boylan, 2-3
Auburn, 2-3
Jefferson, 1-4
Belvidere, 0-5
East, 0-5
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.
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