The future is bright for young, talented Byron baseball team

STILLMAN VALLEY — A junior on the mound. A junior behind the plate. Sophomores at shortstop, right field and third base. Three more juniors in the lineup.

Is this any way to win only the fourth sectional title in Byron’s illustrious baseball history.

The Tigers sure think so.

“A lot of these kids have played a lot of baseball,” coach Dale Hartman said after Byron’s 6-0 Class 2A sectional semifinal victory over Aurora Catholic on Friday. “The juniors don’t feel like they are juniors. The sophomores, a lot of them were with us last year; they don’t really feel like sophomores.

“And it’s great to know we have a bunch of them back next year. But we wanted this year to be a special year, too. And they are making it right now.”

All the scores: Updated IHSA baseball state tournament schedule, scores, pairings for the Rockford area

Byron, which lost 9-3 in the sectional finals to a 30-win Richmond-Burton team Saturday, has averaged almost 20 wins for 30 years now. The Tigers have won 376 games in 20 years in two stints under Hartman and 201 games in 10 years under Ray Bielskis from 2008 to 2017. But their only three sectional titles came in three years that ended with a trip to state, taking second in 1995 and 2014 and losing in the quarterfinals in 2001.

This was another special season, despite being so young, with only two seniors in the Tigers’ 10-man starting lineup Friday. And their pitchers against Richmond-Burton were a freshman and two sophomores.

“If we keep hitting the ball like we are, we are fine,” said junior catcher Charley Mershon, whose first-inning RBI double helped Byron jump to a 5-0 lead before Aurora Catholic (25-11) changed pitchers in the second inning. “After the first two innings we kind of laid an egg, but we just have to keep playing a solid seven innings and I think we’re the best team in the state.”

Left-handers are a baseball rarity: NIC-10 champ Hononegah is loaded with them

Byron’s youth movement starts with junior shortstop/pitcher Braden Smith, who was first-team all-Big Northern as a sophomore. Smith shut out Aurora Catholic on three hits Friday, striking out eight and walking only one.

“I can’t say enough great things about Braden,” Hartman said. “He gives us a sense of calm when he is on the mound.”

“When he pitches, I always expect to win,” said Ryan Tucker, a sophomore who plays short when Smith pitches. “He’s just a good leader. The way he goes, we go.

“It’s nice learning from this guy. He’s one of the best. We’re young. We’re excited for the future. But we’re trying to win now.”

Smith also bashed a two-run double with two out in the second to pad Byron’s lead to 5-0. But he had plenty of help Friday. Byron played errorless defense, highlighted by a back-handed running catch in deep right-center by sophomore Kye Aken on a ball that even Byron fans assumed was a double when it left the bat.

Aken wasn’t sure he’d have a chance when he took off, but he was going to try.

“I just see the ball in the air and go chase after it,” he said. “Every ball that is hit out there, I go as hard as I can after it and try to flag it down, just see what happens. Maybe the ball tails back to me. I think that’s what happened there.

“I know Braden gives it everything he’s got for the rest of us. It’s our job to be out there and give it back to him.”

Power ranks: These are the top 10 Rockford-area baseball teams headed into the IHSA playoffs

Byron (22-7) won six games in a row since a stretch where it lost five times in six games to fall out of the Big Northern race, eventually tying Stillman Valley for third behind Dixon and North Boone.

“We weren’t hitting the best then, but that was the perfect time to be in that slump,” Smith said, “right in the middle of the season. Let’s get good for the playoffs and let’s be running the right way when we want to. This is the right time of the season to be going in the right direction. That hitting slump is over with.”

Byron stopped winning for the year on Friday, but the Tigers have a good idea the winning won’t stop when this year ends.

“We know we are playing good baseball right now and we’re so young it’s going to carry on next year, the year after that, maybe the year after that, too,” Aken said. “It feels like we have been doing this our whole lives out here.”

“We’re young,” Smith said, “but my defense backs me up. We were making plays in the infield all day. Not only does that make me happy, it makes Coach Hartman happy too, because in the future he has bright stars coming up.”

Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @MattTrowbridge. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Byron aims for state baseball run, now and in future with young team