There are a lot of items that play into obtaining success in sports, especially earning a state bid in high school athletics. Having a solid roster, keeping perseverance at the forefront, never quitting. For Cary-Grove baseball, the items that launched themselves to state for just the second time in school history were simple, but oh-so-powerful.
“Love and hard work,” head coach Kyle Williams said.
“Everybody got to see this (state), how much fun this was to be on a big stage,” he said.
However, Coach Williams noted the efforts taken to play in Joliet for the 3A championship, which sometimes can go unnoticed in the bustle of a season.
“What people don’t see is how much those guys hit in the cages, how hard they work in the weight room, how much time they spend together off of the field, building bonds, building relationships,” he said.
When looking at 2025 for CG baseball, they finished the regular season with a 20-12 record, ending the month of May with a three-game winning streak. Their longest winning streak was from April 17th to April 24th, where the Trojans took six straight games from McHenry, Lake Forest, Jacobs, and Prairie Ridge, respectively.
The playoffs saw CG rattle off five consecutive wins to reach state, first beating Niles Notre Dame by a score of 6-3 in a game shifted to the Trojans’ home field, and finally beating Chicago St. Patrick 9-2 at the Boomers’ Wintrust Field, the latter game being the supersectional championship.
“(We) hit the ball hard all playoffs, and it felt like we were firing on all cylinders there for a while,” senior Ricky Barnes said.
Following the 2023 and 2024 seasons, which saw two straight Regional titles for CG but not much advancement in the playoffs, 2025 reflected a stronger, more experienced group and a nice string of baseball being played, led by the many seniors taking the diamond. It was an awesome playoff success story to boot.
“We blew our expectations out of the water,” senior Charlie Taczy said. “I think we all had the goal in mind of going to state, but [it] realistically never was solidified until the end of the season. I think we exceeded [the expectations].”
“They truly earned it, and deserved it, and I’m just so proud of them,” Coach Williams said. “Regardless of the result, I was glad that they got to play in front of thousands of people on a stage like this.”
Being a first-year head coach, as Williams was, earning a berth to the state series wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish, but the success thus far isn’t from a dream, even if it may seem like it sometimes for Coach.
“I am still pinching myself everyday I wake up,” Coach Williams said. “I am so blessed that I got this opportunity to teach and to coach, and then to have a group like this have the success that we had this first year… changed my life in the best way possible.”
As for 2026, the Trojans will field a strong, developing group ready to take on the challenge of repeating the achievements of 2025, led by a few notable players.
“We had three guys throw a lot of meaningful innings for us on our pitching staff, and you saw one of them here in a state semifinal game, Kaden Norman, he’s going to be a beast,” Coach Williams said.
“We had two other junior pitchers this year, Dylan Dumele and Andrew McGee, who got great experience and made great strides. Oscar Freund was out there all year long, he’s going to be a senior leader for us. And then we’ve got a ton of guys that got to see how these seniors did it, and I believe that they’re gonna be able to carry the torch now, and so I’m excited for all of them.”