ROCKFORD — Johnny Beck was in firm command for most of Rochelle’s varsity baseball game against the Rockford Boylan Titans on Wednesday, but the left-handed sophomore’s pitch count forced him off the mound with one out to go in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Unfortunately for the purple and white, that small glimmer of hope was all the Titans needed to mount a two-out rally in the final frame of the game, scoring two runs and shocking the Hubs by a score of 3-2.
“Johnny had this game totally in control,” head coach Jarrod Reynolds said after the game. “They weren’t going to touch him, but because of these new pitch count rules we had to take him out and it’s just really unfortunate because he deserved to win this game and we deserved to win this game. It really got taken away from us.”
The Titans opened up the scoring in the first inning, taking a 1-0 lead after a throw by Rochelle catcher Caleb Gould on a steal attempt went off the top of third baseman Cody Johnson’s glove and into left field. But the Hubs took the lead in the third inning behind three consecutive singles by Johnson, senior Sam Christensen and sophomore Brandon Johnson. A fielder’s choice groundout by Gould plated Cody Johnson, and another groundout by Beck sent Christensen across home plate to make it a 2-1 game in Rochelle’s favor.

“Overall we made better contact,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think we struck out as much and it seemed like every ball we hit was hit hard… I’m not very happy with scoring two runs and we’d like to score at least every inning, but we were a little better today so that was good to see.”
Once the Hubs jumped ahead, it was Beck who took over the game for the purple and white. The 6-foot-7-inch sophomore threw four and two-thirds innings of perfect baseball after a bumpy first inning before Boylan first baseman Carlos Arteaga singled to right field with two outs in the sixth inning to end the Titans’ hitting drought. Beck ended the game tossing a total of six and two-thirds innings while striking out seven batters and walking three.
“He throws pretty hard and he was just throwing fastballs and they couldn’t really catch up to them,” Reynolds said. “He really got in a groove and I think he got better as the game went on. He got more efficient and he was really just pumping the zone with strikes.”
With Rochelle still leading 2-1 in the top of the seventh inning, Beck retired Boylan’s Alex Laue on a flyout to right field before getting Caleb Badgley to ground out to Hubs shortstop Ralfy Mancinas for the Titans’ second out. But a walk to Matt Dmochowski forced Reynolds to remove Beck from the game for junior Riley Lodico, who threw three innings of relief in Rochelle’s 3-3 draw against Harlem on Monday.
Boylan strung back-to-back singles courtesy of Cole Turman and Hunter Ciembronowicz to tie the game 2-2, and after a walk to leadoff hitter Kyle Flynn, the Titans had the bases loaded with two outs for Brandon Manning, who hit a shallow fly to left-center field that dropped a few inches in front of the outstretched glove of the centerfielder Mershon for a game-winning hit.
The loss drops the Hubs to 0-1-1 on the season, and the boys will gear up for a doubleheader against Forreston on Saturday. Like the current weather conditions, the Hubs’ bats have been a bit cold to start the baseball season, but Reynolds is confident his team can heat up over the next few games.
“I thought Noah hit the ball well today even though the box score won’t reflect that,” Reynolds said. “Caleb hit the ball hard and Riley hit the ball hard as well… We just need all of our guys to step up a little bit to get some more balls into the outfield.”