‘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)

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Barney’s spent decade leading Vincennes U. baseball

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Student-athletes are constantly coming and going. That’s the nature of junior college sports.

Chris Barney is in his 10th season as head baseball coach at one such two-year institution — Vincennes (Ind.) University.

“I enjoy the challenge,” says Barney. “I enjoy the aspect of recruiting. You’re always looking for the next best thing.”

A poor team can get better quickly with a solid recruiting class.

‘I’m often asked, what are you looking for in college baseball? Bats play. If you can swing the pole, you’re going to play at the junior college level.”

VU’s stated mission is “to provide associate degree and certificate programs in a wide variety of academic and occupational majors leading to entry to a four-year university or to the workforce.”

Vincennes serves more than 17,000 at its various locations with about a third of that number at the main campus.

“It’s not the typical junior college,” says Barney. “It has a mid-major collegiate feel.”

The goal of the baseball program is to place student-athletes with a place to play at a four-year college. As of last week, 96 Vincennes players had moved on during the decade that Barney’s been in charge, including 32 to NCAA Division I, many to NCAA D-II and NAIA and a few to NCAA D-III.

Barney sees players choose the junior college route for many reasons. Among them are cost, grade issues, level of play, the chance to play right away or be drafted by Major League Baseball and not have to wait to turn 21 or play three seasons like is required at four-year schools.

The Trailblazers’ core beliefs revolve around faith, family, school and baseball.

“It’s like a three-ring circus of academics, athletics and the social scene,” says Barney of Vincennes campus life. “You have to have self-discipline and time management skills. You prioritize where you want to spend your time and what you want to get accomplished out of college.

“You can obtain your full potential as a player. That’s what junior college offers guys.”

Junior college players are allowed to practice more often that those at other levels.

All the time with the team allows individuals to built work ethic, character and emotional stability and, hopefully, have a positive experience.

“It’s an opportunity to get better,” says Barney. “There’s always obstacles and challenges for guys, where it’s an injury, a class, a teammate or playing time. But they learn the fundamental game of baseball.”

School rules say Vincennes freshmen must stay in campus housing. Sophomores have the choice to live on-campus or off-campus. Barney says there’s about a 50-50 split for his current sophomore class.

Barney, who is assisted by Hank Lopez and Matt Goebel, started out with 37 players in the fall and took 31 into the spring.

Almost all of those have hometowns in Indiana.

Until a couple of years ago, Indiana was Barney’s recruiting base. Such scholarship money is based on in-state tuition.

With the favorable rates and so many Illinois junior college baseball programs as opposed to Indiana (which now has three — Vincennes, Ancilla College and Ivy Tech Northeast), plenty of Indiana players choose to play junior college baseball in Illinois.

But Illinois has been opened up so that VU can offer students there a cost similar to what they would get in-state.

“I hope to drive up the price of poker in Illinois for some of those guys,” says Barney of landing Illinois players for the VU program.

Rules allow junior colleges to play 20 games against outside competition in the fall. Vincennes also plays about 10 intrasquad games. There are 56 regular-season games in the spring.

That’s a lot of innings to cover so Barney typically carries 16 to 18 pitches, some of whom also play other positions.

“I love those guys,” says Barney. “If they can be successful at both, it’s well worth or time and energy to put the effort into that.”

The Trailblazers are in National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Region 24. The region is made up of nine Mid-West Athletic Conference members — Vincennes plus Danville (Ill.) Area Community College, Heartland Community College (Normal, Ill.), Illinois Central College (East Peoria, Ill.), John Wood Community College (Quincy, Ill.), Lewis & Clark Community College (Godfrey, Ill.), Lincoln Land Community College (Springfield, Ill.), Parkland College (Champaign, Ill.) and Spoon River College (Canton, Ill.).

Vincennes went into play April 3 at 15-12 overall and 4-4 in the conference.

There is a 32-game conference schedule. The top eight teams go to the MWAC tournament. The winner advances to the NJCAA D-II World Series (May 25-June 1 in Enid, Okla.).

“There’s a lot of positives in moving over to that region,” says Barney. “Before, we were independent in Region 12, which is Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Trying to find games in late March, April and part of May was a bear.”

Vincennes went to the World Series in 2010 and 2014 under the old qualifying format. Teams were required to make it through a sub-regional to get to an eight-team double-elimination tournament that sent the champion to championship series.

The Trailblazers play home games at Jeremy Blemker Field.

Huntingburg, Ind., native Blemker coached for 38 years, including 26 at Vincennes (1980-2006) and amassed a NJCAA-record 1,037 victories. He sent more than 180 players on to play at universities around the country and 27 signed professional contracts.

Blemker, who died in 2012, was an inductee of the NJCAA and Greater Evansville Baseball halls of fame.

The original Blemker Field was on the VU campus. It was razed to make room for Updike Hall Scienc Earth and Mathematics Learning Center and the Trailblazers moved to a new baseball complex on Old Terre Haute Road five years ago.

Barney says the university has continued to provide the team with the means to maintain the facility.

Before landing at VU, Orlando, Fla., native Barney has made several baseball coaching stops. He was assistant coach and recruiting director for 13 years at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville.

Barney, a graduate of Tennessee Wesleyan University in Athens, Tenn., has also served as head coach of the Quincy Gems and Springfield Rifles in the Central Illinois Collegiate League (summer) and was an assistant at Tennessee Wesleyan, Tusculum University (Greeneville, Tenn.) and St. John’s River State College (Palatka, Fla.) as well as serving on the summer staffs for the Frontier League’s Midwest Sliders (Ypsilanti, Mich.) and New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Vermont Mountaineers (Montpelier, Vt.).

Barney counts Mike Policastro, Tom Griffin, Mike Goedde and Mike Robins among his baseball mentors.

Barney played for Policastro (now head coach at Cleveland State Community College in Tennessee) at Tenessee Weselyan and was a teammate and coached alongside Griffin (now head coach at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tenn.) at that same school. Goedde (now head coach at Evansville Central High School) was USI head coach when Barney was on the staff. Robins led the squad at St. John’s River.

“You take a little bit from everybody,” says Barney. “You put your own personality on the program, too.

“It’s fun. The kids keep you young and always bring something new to the table.”

Chris Barney is in his 10th season as head baseball coach at Vincennes (Ind.) University in 2019. (Steve Krah Photo)

 

Archuleta, Southern Indiana back in NCAA D-II regional

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

There’s a tradition of diamond excellence in Evansville.

For the seventh time in the 11 seasons, University of Southern Indiana baseball finds itself in regional play.

The 20th-ranked Screaming Eagles (32-19) are the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional and will meet No. 7 Saint Joseph’s (Ind.) on Thursday afternoon. The event is slated for Thursday to Monday, May 18-22.

The field at Gerace Baseball Stadium in Midland, Mich., also features top seed and host Northwood (Mich.) (43-11), No. 3 Quincy (Ill.) (32-20), No. 4 Drury (Mo.) (36-18), No. 5 Bellarmine (Ky.) (34-19), No. 6 Wayne State (Mich.) (31-19) and No. 8 Kentucky Wesleyan (27-22). Northwood (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), Quincy (Great Lakes Valley Conference) and Kentucky Wesleyan (Great Midwest Athletic Conference) are automatic qualifiers and the others were awarded at-large berths.

Regional champions will advance to the double-elimination Division II College World Series May 27-June 3 at The Ballpark at Grand Prairie in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Why is USI in the title mix again?

“I don’t think there’s a magical secret,” says 11th-year Screaming Eagles coach Tracy Archuleta. “We’ve been fortunate to be around some good baseball players that have a common goal and they’re able to make a deep run into the postseason. Since 2007, we’ve built that tradition and that expectation to get the (College) World Series and compete at a high level.”

Archuleta took USI to the D-II CWS in 2007 and the Screaming Eagles won it all in 2010 and 2014.

The winning has helped attract players willing to work and do what its necessary keep that team success going. The 2017 roster features 26 players with Indiana hometowns.

“It’s those little intangible things you look for when you go out recruiting,” says Archuleta. ”We want to bring in the best players in the state of Indiana and our area.”

NCAA D-II is allowed to give nine scholarships. USI fully funds six.

“We work within our budget,” says Archuleta. “That’s the way it is.”

Archuleta, who has more than 550 victories in his 16th season as a college head coach, carries high expectations in the way the Eagles prepare.

“I’m a guy who demands a lot from my players as far as putting in the work,” says Archuleta. “I want our guys to be able to understand what we’re trying to do at practice so when we get to the game they’re going to be instinctive and be able to react to situations.

“I’m not a micro-manager once the game starts.”

Player development is a very important component of USI’s winning ways.

“As a staff, we really want to make that player better,” says Archuleta. “We focus on individual skills stuff.”

The 2017 coaching staff includes Jeremy Kuester, Ryan Bertram and Kevin Brown.

Kuester has been with Archulea since 2010. He is USI’s pitching coach.

Bertram played four years for Archuleta and is now a graduate assistant.

Former big leaguer and USI player Brown is a volunteer. Bertram and Brown work with hitters and catchers.

While playing at Northwood will be a new experience for Archuleta, going against Saint Joseph’s will not since the Eagles and Pumas are both in the GLVC. With Saint Joe closing its doors, the May 6-7 series in Rensselaer was USI’s last.

“If was sad day,” says Archuleta of that final Sunday. “Coach (Rick) O’Dette does a great job. He’s made that program have a lot of pride and tradition. I have tremendous respect for him and the institution.”

It’s the lasting strength of GLVC baseball that gives the Eagles confidence at postseason time.

“The conference over the years just continues to get better,” says Archuleta. “It definitely prepares us.”

Archuleta is a graduate of Caliche High School in Colorado. He played at NCAA Division II Metropolitan State of Denver 1993-96. Building up a network in the D-II baseball world, he was an assistant coach at D-II Wayne State (Neb.) and Central Missouri State before serving five seasons as head coach at D-II Wisconsin-Parkside. He took the Rangers to their first-ever NCAA tournament.

Then he landed at D-II USI and fell in love with the program, institution and city.

“It’s a great university and great community,” says Archuleta. “We really have a great backing. Evansville is a great place to raise a family.”

On the diamond, Archuleta and the Eagles hope to keep raising banners.

Tracy Archuleta is in his 11th season as head baseball coach at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. He has the Screaming Eagles in the NCAA Division II regional for the seventh time in those 11 years. (USI Photo)