‘Golden Retriever’ Boynton doing his part for NCAA D-II powerhouse Quincy

BY STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Brock Boynton came from a very successful prep baseball program and he’s experienced more of the same in college.
The 2019 graduate of Penn High School in Mishawaka, Ind., where the Kingsmen have won five state titles and numerous conference, sectional, regional and semistate crowns, landed at NCAA Division II dynamo Quincy (Ill.) University.
The Hawks (44-9 overall, 27-5 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in 2023) are on a 14-game win streak after winning the GLVC tournament and host a D-II Midwest Region tournament Thursday to Saturday, May 18-20. The winner of the event that also includes Wayne State and Northwood moves on to a best-of-three super regional for a chance to compete in the D-II World Series June 3-10 in Cary, N.C.
Quincy, which calls QU Stadium (built in 1938 under the Works Project Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt), is No. 4 in the Collegiate Baseball D-II poll and No. 1 in the NCAA Midwest D-II rankings.
A lefty batting and throwing senior center fielder, Boyton has played in 51 games (50 starts) and is hitting .294 (52-of-177) with eight home runs, eight doubles, 41 runs batted in, 42 runs scored and an .849 OPS (.374 on-base percentage plus .475 slugging average).
Quincy opened the 2023 season in Florida and went 4-3 against traditional D-II powers Tampa, Saint Leo and Rollins. Boynton hit .387 (12-of-31) on the trip.
“I felt pretty good,” says Boynton of that start. “I came back up (north) and struggled a little bit.
“I’m just trying to ride the wave — not get too high or get too low — and just take one pitch at a time. It know there are times coming up where the team is going to need you. This is playoff baseball. Every pitch counts. It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting or on defense, you’ve got to put everything aside. It’s a new season. I’m going up the plate every single time to do a job for my team.
“Our inside joke for our hitters is “The Union: We do jobs.”
During his four-year QU career, Boynton has been in 161 games (157 starts) and is hitting .304 (164-of-539) with 16 homers, 22 doubles, 104 RBIs, 122 runs and an .847 OPS (.398/.449).
With Boynton on the team, Quincy is 120-55.
Boynton really takes satisfaction from his impact on defense.
“It’s everything,” says Boynton. “Because baseball is a very hard sport and you’ve got guys being paid millions of dollars to fail 7 out of 10 times. A buddy always told me, ‘Your offense will always come and go, but your defense can always stay.’ That has always sat with me.
“I take so much pride in the outfield and being that leader in center field. To take runs away (from the other team) and be there for your pitcher. My nickname on the team is ‘Golden Retriever.’ I’m going to chase down that ball for you.”
Among his favorite MLB players are Mike Trout and Bryce Harper.
“You look at photos of me back in rec ball and I had the eye black nearly down to my chin,” says Boynton. “Those are two guys I model my game on.”
Quincy’s head coach for Boynton’s first two seasons was Josh Rabe (who played 38 games in the majors with the Minnesota Twins in 2006 and 2007). Matt Schissel has guided the program the past two.
“The knowledge that (Rabe) has is unbelievable,” says Boynton of the man who is now Quincy’s athletic director. “That dude has seen a lot of baseball. I tried to be a sponge around him.
“(Hitting coach/recruiting coordinator) Chandler Purcell played for Josh. He has done an excellent job.”
The 2023 Hawks are led by junior catcher and GLVC Player of the Year Luke Napleton (.359, 27 homers, 83 RBIs).
“Our lineup is very scary because 1 through 9 can change the game in one swing,” says Boynton. “That’s what sets us apart from any other team we play.”
Boynton, who turns 23 in July, received his diploma Monday, May 15 and graduated with a Sport Management degree. Though he is entitled to a fifth season, his plan is to play this summer for the Northwoods League’s Kokomo (Ind.) Jackrabbits and try to make his way into independent pro baseball.
“I’m putting all my chips out on the table and betting on myself this season and this summer,” says Hobbs. “I know I have the tools to play at the next level.”
Johnston Hobbs, who earned a Master of Kinesiology degree from Indiana University, has been named as Kokomo head coach/manager for 2023.
The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder spent the summer of 2022 honing his game at PRP Baseball in Noblesville, Ind. He was briefly with the 2021 Quincy Gems of the Prospect League and spent 2020 with the Northwoods League’s Kalamazoo (Mich.) Mac Daddies.
Boynton was born in South Bend, Ind., and grew up on the south side of Osceola, Ind.
He started organized baseball at what is now Penn Park in Osceola through 12U and moved on to Harris Township Black, the Granger Irish (coached by father Brad Boynton and Rick Berg) and then in high school the South Bend Cubs Elite.
“There were all the same faces in high school and travel ball which is awesome,” says Boynton.
A stint with the Illinois-based 29ers (now Midwest Hitmen) for a tournament in Georgia is how he got connected to Quincy.
At Penn, Boynton played for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Greg Dikos.
“Coach Dikos will go down as one of the best baseball coaches I’ve ever had in my life,” says Boynton. “That man means the world to me.
“He’s a Founding Father of 574 Baseball in my opinion. There’s no other coach in (north central) Indiana that has the accolades that man has.”
Besides all the rings, Dikos has amassed more than 800 career victories.
A memory for Boynton is Dikos bringing out a training device when he wanted the Kingsmen — on the way to a school record number of home runs — to level out their upper-cut swings.
“We were hitting too many pop flies,” says Boynton. “With this flat red tee if you didn’t have a flat swing you were busting your bat or you were busting this tee. You either hit the ball on the ground or it became a line drive.”
Guess what Quincy, a team that has D-II-leading 118 home runs, uses?
“Every single day here we use that flat red tee,” says Boynton. “I thought I’d never see it again since leaving high school.”
Boynton also shined for Penn on the gridiron. He caught a game-winning touchdown at Elkhart Central and was featured on ESPN and saluted by Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy Moss during his “You Got Mossed!” segment in October 2018. The same fall, Boynton committed to Quincy for baseball.
He was invited to play football at QU as a receiver/kick returner but decided to focus on the diamond.
“I love football,” says Boynton. “That is a different side of me. I had a lot more offers for baseball. The fact that my parents don’t have to pay a single cent for me to go to school here is the cherry on top.”
Even though it’s a 770-mile roundtrip from Osceola to Quincy and back and closest GLVC school (Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill.) is 117 miles one-way, Brad and Stephanie Boynton are able to get to all of Brock’s games.
Brad Boynton was a sophomore starting center fielder on the Kingsmen’s first state championship team in 1994. He now works at Hoosier Spring Company in South Bend. Stephanie Boynton owns Artistic Hair in South Bend.
Younger brother Hunter Boynton (Penn Class of 2021) was a high school wrestler and is now an electrician for Weaver Electric & Heating Corp., in Mishawaka.

Brock Boynton. (Quincy University Photo)

Brock Boynton. (Quincy University Photo)

Brock Boynton. (Quincy University Photo)

Brock Boynton. (Quincy University Photo)

Brock Boynton. (Quincy University Photo)

Brock Boynton. (Quincy University Photo)

Vaught lured back to the dugout with Lake Erie Storm

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Gary Vaught did not see himself leading another college baseball program.

When he retired a head coach at the University of Indianapolis in 2018, Vaught wanted to spend more time with his ailing mother back in Norman, Okla., and was secure in the knowledge that UIndy was in good hands with his former Greyhounds assistant Al Ready.

He had agreed to be head coach/general manager for the Hoptown Hoppers, a summer collegiate wood bat team in Hopkinsville, Ky., then Lake Eric College, a private school and NCAA Division II school in Painesville, Ohio (30 miles northeast of Cleveland) came calling.

Vaught was on vacation with friends when former LEC athletic director Kelley Kish (who had been in the compliance office at UIndy) reached out.

With so many former assistants in coaching, including Jordan Tiegs (now in the Texas Rangers system), Vaught was glad to recommend a candidate or two to the Storm. 

Vaught was invited to the Lake Erie campus and met with president Brian Posler (who had served at Kansas State University and the University of Southern Indiana).

The job was offered to Vaught and he took it in January. 

“I fell in love with the people up there,” says Vaught, who works for athletic director Mollie Hoffman.

Vaught led the Storm to a 3-6-1 mark in a COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. All but one of the losses came in the final inning.

The virus caused the Hoppers season to be called off and the veteran coach spent much of his time between Indianapolis and Oklahoma.

Vaught’s career mark at the NCAA D-I or D-II levels to 978-672-2. 

Starting with the 1985 season, Vaught coached two years at Kansas State, three at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., and 24 at UIndy (1995-2018). He won a school-record 808 wins and the program’s first NCAA Division II College World Series appearance in 2000. The Hounds went 51-15 in 2001.

Then there’s the 305 victories Vaught racked up at the beginning of his coaching career at Connors State College in Warren, Okla.

Vaught, 69, is back in Indianapolis with the Lake Erie closed down because of COVID, but he’s still coaching the Storm.

His fire was reignited last spring and continues to burn.

“I’ve got a lot of energy,” says Vaught. “I love the game. It’s been a big part of my life. Hopefully we’ve made changes in kids’ lives.”

Each year around Christmas, Vaught receives and makes calls to former players. He also reaches out to mentor Gary Ward, who enjoyed so much success at Oklahoma State University and is a member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

“It doesn’t take anytime to pick up the phone and say thank you,” says Vaught. “Treat people how they are supposed to be treated. That’s how to try to do everyday as a coach. 

“The Lord’s blessed me in so many ways.”

The veteran skipper has so many “baseball brothers” that he appreciates in the baseball fraternity. Among those are Tracy Archuleta (University of Southern Indiana), Rick O’Dette (Saint Leo Universty), Larry Owens (Bellarmine University) and Josh Rabe (Quincy University).

And the list goes on.

Vaught says he looks forward to bringing his team to UIndy for a April 14, 2021 doubleheader, where he can take the field against former players now coaching the Greyhounds Ready (whose son Cam is a godchild to Vaught) and Trevor Forde. UIndy AD Scott Young was Vaught’s assistant for 14 years.

Former Greyhounds AD Dave Huffman hired Vaught in 1994 and the coach also worked with Sue Willey in her tenure as AD.

Lake Erie plays its home games at Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio, home of the Midwest League’s Lake County Captains.

The Storm belong the the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Tom Daeger, who played for Vaught at UIndy, is the GMAC commissioner.

Gary Vaught was the head baseball coach at the University of Indianapolis, where he won 808 games in 24 seasons concluding with 2018. In 2020, he started coaching at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio. (UIndy Photo)

Schlueter imparting knowledge with Baseball Directive

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Sharing his knowledge, Ed Schlueter is looking to raise the quality of baseball played in his corner of the world.

That corner is located in Jasper County in northwest Indiana — about 20 miles south of Valparaiso and 75 miles southeast of Chicago.

Operating out of a rented 40-by-50 space in a pole barn near Wheatfield with one batting cage and enough room to throw the ball 60 feet, 6 inches, the former college player is passing along his knowledge.

Schlueter, a 2011 graduate of Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., was a teacher and head baseball coach at Rensselaer Central High School for three seasons (2012-14) then decided to become a commercial and residential painter.

Missing the game he loves, Schlueter started Baseball Directive and began providing private lessons. In the last calendar year, he has worked with about 50 individuals on hitting, pitching and catching.

“I want to spread more baseball to the people around me,” says Schlueter, who was a right-hander pitcher at Saint Joe and before that at Harlem High School near Rockford, Ill., before that. “I want to give direction.”

Schlueter’s lessons are directed to parents and players to “get them headed in the right direction.”

Besides the mechanics of baseball, Schlueter also imparts wisdom about the mental side of the game.

“It’s doing things the right way and being accountable,” says Schlueter. “They have to do more on their own. I give them homework (something to work on before the next lesson) and they spend 5 or 10 minutes a day on it.

“They have to buy into and trust what they’re doing in order to put the work in. A lot of them don’t realize the amount of training that goes into getting to the next level. It’s a mix of talent and hard work. It can’t all just be natural talent.”

It’s important with the younger players to get that work ethic started early.

“By the time they get to middle school or high school, it is instilled,” says Schlueter, who helps players in the Clinton Prairie, Rensselaer Central, Kankakee Valley, Lowell, North Newton school districts and more. A couple of his travel ball clients are the Outcast Thunder (Lowell) and North Central Cyclones (Francesville).

As a one-man operation, Schlueter can focus on each of his pupils.

“I like the whole one-on-one personal connection I can have with players and their parents,” says Schlueter. “They feel like they’re getting 100 percent of the attention all of the time.

“We’re not be rushed to get through everything. I’m providing that customer service.”

He also gets a chance to have quality time with his son. Ed and Meagan Schlueter’s boy — Lucas — is a 5-year-old ballplayer.

For Schlueter, it’s the people that make it worth being in baseball.

At Rensselaer Central, he inherited a good team that won 16 games before bowing to Andrean in the first round of the IHSAA Class 3A Kankakee Valley Sectional in 2012 then struggled the next two seasons.

“The best part of it was developing relationships with my players,” says Schlueter. “It was more about that bond.”

He still shares meals with his former Bombers and regularly communicates with them through phone calls and texts.

Schlueter was part of a tight-knit group at Saint Joe fostered by head coach Rick O’Dette.

“It was a family atmosphere,” says Schlueter. “I’m starting to see other programs envelope that.

“Kids are investing their time and money into college baseball. Ending up with a lifelong family is a huge pay-off.”

Schlueter speaks highly of O’Dette and still maintains contact with the man who has moved on to Saint Leo University in Florida after Saint Joe closed its doors at the end of the 2016-17 school year.

“He’s a great guy and a motivator,” says Schlueter of Coach O. “He pushes you to get the best out of you all the time. He was good at helping guys understand what the game is about. He was always at explaining this is why we do this and why we do that.”

While Schlueter was at SJC, he also encountered assistants Matt Kennedy (now a Saint Leo assistant), Josh Rabe (now head coach at Quincy University) and Jeremy Sheetinger (now American Baseball Coaches Association coaches liaison).

Schlueter’s head coach in high school was Doug Livingston, who has since retired with the most wins in Harlem program history.

Livingston got his players to take ownership and work hard.

With a core of players who grew up on diamonds together, Harlem won back-to-back Illinois High School Association regional titles (equivalent to the sectional in Indiana) in Schlueter’s junior and senior seasons (2005 and 2006).

In 2005, the Huskies became only the second team to go unbeaten in the Northern Illinois Conference (then known as the NIC-9). Schlueter went 7-0 with an 0.91 earned run average in 2005 and 10-2 with one save and a 1.20 ERA in 2006.

“We learned to play as a team,” says Schlueter. “It was not all about one individual. We had depth and learned to rely on one another.”

Baseball Directive is on social media — Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Ed Schlueter (right) operates Baseball Directive out of a rented space near Wheatfield in northwest Indiana.

Ed Schlueter, a graduate of Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., and the former Rensselaer Central High School head baseball coach, is the founder of Baseball Directive. Baseball near Wheatfield, Ind., he provides instruction and information to area players and their parents.