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St. Henry senior Hayden Boeckman, seated center, signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday to play baseball at Indiana Tech. Seated with him are his parents, Molly and Trent Boeckman, and standing is St. Henry coach Mike Gast.
ST. HENRY - St. Henry senior Hayden Boeckman signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to play baseball at Indiana Tech next season.
Boeckman, who plans to major in either business or sports management, also considered Defiance, his father Trent's alma mater. In the end, he said the fact that the Warriors' coaches placed an emphasis on academics appealed to him.
"Their program is not just about baseball," Boeckman said. "They bring you in, and it's a family on and off the field. They don't just want to be great on the field, they want to be great in the classroom too. … They take school very seriously there, and that's one of the things that caught my eye."
Boeckman, who manned centerfield in the Redskins' run to the state semifinals in 2023, hit .327 for the Redskins last spring and added 28 RBI, 23 runs and 15 stolen bases. But it was his play in the outfield that set him apart.
St. Henry coach Mike Gast, who called him "maybe the best defensive outfielder that I've coached since I've been back here," remembered Boeckman chasing down fly balls to prevent a few runs in a key early-season Midwest Athletic Conference win against Coldwater.
He said Boeckman's other top defensive game came in the state semifinal game against Russia, which went scoreless into the eighth inning before St. Henry lost 1-0.
"He probably ran down two or three balls in the gap that we were concerned were doubles, triples, or even in a big park, potential home runs that he was able to come down to," Gast said.
Boeckman started out playing in the infield, seeing time at second base and shortstop between his early varsity and ACME appearances. Heading into last year, Gast was considering Boeckman and Logan Link for a starting middle infield spot.
In the end, both found their role: Link took over shortstop, and Boeckman established himself in centerfield.
"Hayden looked so good in centerfield, it just seemed silly to try him anywhere else," Gast said. "He covered a lot of ground for us. He makes our pitching better, just based on the plays he's able to make out there. … He's an absolute weapon defensively, for sure."
"Last year was my first year of outfield, and I'd like to stay out there," Boeckman said, "but wherever they need me, I'll play."
Gast said one of Boeckman's biggest improvements so far has been his athleticism, estimating that he'd grown eight or nine inches from the start of his freshman year.
With one year of high school ball and another offseason before joining Indiana Tech, Boeckman said the Warriors coaches want him to work on his hitting form.
"Right now I tend to step out of the box a little bit," he said. "I'm trying to fix that up this spring."
The Warriors, an NAIA school competing in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference, went 33-17 last season, the 16th under head coach Kip McWilliams.
Indiana Tech has been a hotbed for St. Henry baseball alumni in recent years. Pitchers Ryan Uhlenhake and Nolan Schmitz and infielder Bryce Brookhart signed in consecutive years before Boeckman extended the streak to four.
Before joining them, Boeckman has a chance to help St. Henry build on last year's tournament run, which he called his proudest accomplishment so far.
"That was a big team goal," he said, "and we've got a lot of guys returning this year, so we're hoping to do the same thing again."
