Rockford-area teams to watch in Class 1A and 2A baseball playoffs include this late riser

Scott Wilhite has had many, many good baseball teams at Stillman Valley, averaging 19 wins in his 24 years as coach.

But he’s never had a team like this one.

At one point, Stillman Valley scored a total of two runs over four games of a five-game stretch. And won two of them.

The Cardinals have been held to two runs or fewer nine times this season.

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“That’s been the tough part,” Wilhite said. “In the past, we’ve always had pretty good hitting teams. We have struggled in that department this year.”

A lack of hitting knocked Stillman out of the Big Northern Conference race almost before it began. But strong defense and a re-sorted pitching staff make the Cardinals (19-12, 10-6 BNC) a dangerous playoff opponent. Maybe as dangerous as BNC rival North Boone (21-8, 11-5), which is having one of its best seasons ever. League champ Byron (24-4-1, 14-2), remains the top local team to beat in the Class 2A playoffs, but Stillman did just that in its last game and should be a tough out.

“They are a typical Stillman Valley team; fundamentally sound,” Byron coach Dale Hartman said. “Scott has them playing really well this time of year. They are getting to the point where they thought they were going to be. They just got off to a slow start. We expected them to be a solid team all year long. They are showing that now.”

Here is a look at the top Rockford-area teams to watch in the Class 1A and 2A baseball playoffs, which begin Monday with regional finals on Saturday. All records are as of this past Thursday.

Class 2A at Port Byron Riverdale

Byron returns most of its team that finished one game short of state last year and is the top seed in the Port Byron Riverdale Regional. Byron had won 12 games in a row — the last nine by at least five runs — before losing 7-3 to Stillman Valley on Wednesday. Now the Tigers go west and play a whole new group of teams, with Riverdale (13-7) seeded to host Byron on its home field in Saturday’s finals. Byron has never played Riverdale in Hartman’s long coaching career.

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“Being put in a way different sub-sectional is exciting,” Hartman said. “It’s nice to not have to play our whole conference all over again. But it’s also unsettling, playing teams we are not familiar with.”

Class 2A at Richmond-Burton

North Boone is a 3 seed and should meet No. 2 Richmond-Burton (17-10, 7-7 Kishwaukee River Conference) in Saturday’s finals. The two teams both used to be in the Big Northern East when the BNC had two divisions. North Boone finished in a three-way tie for second in the BNC with Rock Falls and Dixon, its highest-ever finish. The Vikings also won over 20 games for the first time in 30 years.

Class 2A at Marengo

No. 1 seed Marengo (19-8, 10-2) won the Kishwaukee River Conference and, like Richmond-Burton and Riverdale can play its regional final at home. Stillman is the 4 seed but has beaten each of the top seeds at all three local 2A regionals: 1-0 over Marengo, 2-1 over Richmond-Burton and 7-3 in its second game against Byron. The Cardinals also swept a Dixon team that had won the previous four BNC titles, 2-1 and 4-3.

With a solid defense led by a quartet of three-year starters, Stillman Valley is a dangerous team with tough pitching. Aiden Cicogna, who shutout Marengo 1-0, is Stillman’s returning ace. he is 5-2 with a 2.64 ERA and 69 strikeouts vs. only 14 walks.

Braden Engel (5-1, 0.75 ERA, 49 strikeouts, 7 walks), Jackson Musial (3-2, 2.67 ERA, 46 strikeouts and 16 walks, and Kaenan McDevitt, 2-0 with a 4.43 ERA, 32 strikeouts and 18 walks, now give Stillman pitching depth it lacked early in the season.

“We have got our pitching in order over the last month,” Wilhite said. “We figured out who our main guys are. Early on, we had 12 guys we were running out there, trying to learn who was going to figure out how to throw strikes and earn the bulk of the innings.

“In the postseason, most of the time you are playing close, low-scoring games. We have played a ton of those things this year. Even our five-run games were one-run games until something happened at the end.

“We just have to continue pitching the way we’ve been pitching, limit mistakes defensively and if we hit just a little bit more, we have a really good shot at making a run.”

Class 1A

Lena-Winslow (15-6) is the top seed in its own regional and is seeded to play the finals against Dakota, a team it edged twice recently, 2-0 and 1-0 to claim the NUIC North crown.

NUIC South champion Forreston (18-8, 8-1) has the most wins of any local 1A team and is top seed at the Ashton-Franklin Center Regional. The Cardinals are seeded to meet Amboy in Saturday’s finals. They swept the Clippers 11-0 and 12-3 during the season.

NUIC South rivals Eastland (9-11-1) and Fulton (12-12) are the top seeds in the Fulton Regional. Eastland has a win and a 4-4 tie against Forreston but carried a five-game losing streak into the final week of the regular season.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Big Northern trio lead Rockford's small-school baseball contenders