ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Hub baseball team had five batters finish with averages over .300 during the 2025 season. With offensive numbers on the rise, head coach Jarrod Reynolds said that improved defense and pitching will be key focuses for the Hubs as the offseason begins.

Rochelle finished with an 11-20 overall record, but the Hubs went winless in the Interstate 8 for the second straight season, posting an 0-15 record as the team rode a 31-game conference losing streak into the summer. Despite the struggles in conference play, Rochelle fared well against its nonconference opponents, going 11-5 and beating teams like Rockford Boylan, Rockford Auburn, Streator, Rockford Guilford, Sterling, Marengo, Dixon, Harvard and Belvidere.

“I thought our seniors played well and the top of our order hit the ball really well,” Reynolds said. “It’s always nice when seniors play well during their last year. We’re really young and we have a lot of talented kids. I hope they continue to improve and get better because I think we can have some good years coming up. We have to get better defensively and work on our arms a bit. We saw some good things this year and I think we have some potential and talent going forward.”

Much of the turnaround on offense was due to major improvements from returning seniors like Carson Lewis, who led Rochelle with 45 hits and a .417 batting average. Seven Hubs finished with at least 10 RBIs after only three did so during the 2024 season, when Rochelle went 7-22. Seniors Brandyn Metzger (.337) and Ethan Goodwin (.327) each raised their averages by over .100, while junior Brode Metzger (.347) hit over the .300 mark for the second consecutive year.

“Our hitting got better,” Reynolds said. “We averaged more runs per game… Our team batting average was better and at times, I thought we had a lot of pitching depth. We have guys who throw harder and hopefully we see that continue to improve. Overall, our hitting was better.”

Sophomore Brody Bruns (.376) also raised his average significantly from the 2024 season. While the Hubs hit just two home runs, Rochelle totaled 10 triples and 38 doubles, far more than the 2024 season. Brandyn Metzger led the Hubs with 27 RBIs, while Bruns drove in 23 RBIs. Goodwin and Brode Metzger each recorded 18 RBIs for the Hubs, who will graduate five seniors including Lewis, Goodwin, Brandyn Metzger, Ryan Senne and Antonio Trenado.

On the mound, Rochelle had 10 players throw innings this season, with the majority of those innings going to seven players. While depth wasn’t an issue for the Hubs in 2025, consistency was difficult to find, as the team finished with 171 strikeouts and 169 walks over 190 innings pitched. Rochelle hit 36 batters, committed three balks, threw 75 wild pitches and concluded the season with a team ERA of 7.29. Lewis (45) and Bruns (41.1) led the team in innings pitched.

“We had a lot of guys who could pitch and pitched well at times, but we were inconsistent,” Reynolds said. “Some of those young guys were put into varsity baseball and thrown in out of necessity, so they had some good games and they had some games where they struggled.”

Defense was another struggle for the Hubs, who committed 90 errors over 31 games (2.9 errors per game) and ended the year with an .893 fielding rate. While Rochelle will graduate a talented senior class, the team will have a promising group of sophomores eligible to return in 2026.

That includes Bruns (a second-year varsity player in 2025), Dylan Manning (.286 average, 18 hits, 12 RBIs), Johnny Andrist (11 hits, 13 RBIs, 21.2 IP) and Andrew Huerta (12 hits, 9 RBIs, 15.2 IP). Brode Metzger (a third-year varsity player in 2025), Van Gerber (7 hits, 3 RBIs), Gavin Neale (5 hits, 3 RBIs) and Seth Ramos are four juniors eligible to come back next season.

“Free bases were a problem for us this year and our infield defense was a struggle at times,” Reynolds said. “We need to see our defense take a step forward. We averaged about 15 free bases allowed per game and that isn’t going to win us very many baseball games… Having Brody and Brode back next year will be exciting because they have a lot of varsity experience. Dylan, Andrew and Johnny all did some good things and they’ll play a big role next year.”