Baseball: St. Charles North pitcher Josh Caccia is the Kane County Chronicle Player of the Year

ST. CHARLES – When people think of dominant pitchers, they usually think of a player who towers over others both in size and strength.

What they don’t expect to see is St. Charles North’s Josh Caccia, who stands just 5-foot-11 and weighs 170 pounds.

Even high school coaches didn’t expect it.

“One of my best stories about him, I remember when he pitched in the regional championship game, I had some coaches come up to me and say, ‘This Josh Caccia kid, he’s pretty good. Which one is he?’ ” North Stars coach Todd Genke said. “I think they were all looking for this 7-foot, 240-pound kid. And when I pointed him out, they were like ‘Wow, that’s him? He’s not that big.’ ”

But every time Caccia took the mound, Genke said he might as well have been seven feet tall.

“Everybody had confidence in him, whether it was the eight guys on the field, the coaching staff or our guys on the bench,” Genke said. “We just knew he was going to give us a quality and dominating outing every time. And it was amazing to watch.”

In 16 appearances on the mound for the North Stars, the DuKane Pitcher of the Year and All-State selection went a perfect 8-0 with a 1.05 ERA to go along with 104 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 73 innings. He held batters to a .164 batting average.

Caccia has been named the 2024 Kane County Chronicle Baseball Player of the Year.

“Josh is just one of those kids that is always the first one to arrive and the last one to leave and is always working on a way to improve his craft,” Genke said. “He led by example. I mean, he was a verbal leader as well, but he would show kids how to do things just with how hard he worked.

“When you have a kid with that much talent who’s willing to work hard and be coachable, you have something special. And Josh was just a coach’s dream and would do everything you ask of him and then some.”

Entering the season as one of 16 seniors on the team, Caccia said the North Stars knew they all had the same goal.

Caccia’s main goal for his last season was simple: Leave it all out on the field.

“If it didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I can’t control much of that. But if I gave it my all, that’s the best I could do,” Caccia said. “Luckily when I went out there and competed, we were able to pick up some wins and I was able to help the team.”

Part of Caccia’s plan for going all out was putting a new pitch in his arsenal. After having only a two-pitch combo of a fastball and slider, he decided he needed to add a third pitch that would throw batters off their game even more.

While he originally tried to implement a changeup, he found his split-fingered fastball gave him the advantage he needed.

“It definitely helps the fastball and slider to be more effective. With just those two pitches, it’s kind of hard because the batter is sitting on two different kinds of movements,” Caccia said. “But by working in the split finger in there, it gets the whole team talking and then it’s just sitting in the back of their head. So being able to throw that for strikes in a swing-and-miss situation every once in a while was a huge help. It just gave me a huge confidence boost on the mound.”

The addition proved to be helpful early in the season – and helped him make St. Charles North history. On April 15, Caccia became the North Stars’ all-time strikeout leader after passing Zach Hirsch’s mark of 164 strikeouts, which was set in 2007.

With his name etched in school history, Caccia hopes he can inspire future players to put in the work to try to break his mark.

“Just by breaking that record, it shows that you don’t have to be 6-4, 220 pounds and throwing 90 miles an hour to compete,” Caccia said. “If you’re able to work hard, compete, battle against every hitter and be able to locate your pitches, you can still be one of the top pitchers in the area.”

When he wasn’t on the field, Caccia would contribute in other ways such as being a courtesy runner. Caccia would find a spot right next to Genke when other North Stars pitchers took to the mound.

“He was able to manage the pitching staff and helped so much with all of our pitchers. He was like a third coach on our team,” Genke said. “He would just sit and see how I would attack hitters and what pitches I was putting down and he would always ask questions or point out certain things with the batters. He was just always listening and growing as a player and he was just a really smart student-athlete with unbelievable physical talent.”

Caccia, who will play at Elgin Community College next season, said at the beginning of the year he filled out a Google form given by the coaches that asked what he wanted to be remembered as by the end of his tenure.

His answer: To be remembered as a pitching success story who worked hard to compete with everyone once he was given the chance.

After a stellar senior season and with the title of the North Stars’ all-time strikeout leader under Caccia’s belt, Genke knows Caccia’s name won’t be going away from the program anytime soon.

“Records are made to be broken, but he definitely left his legacy. And when it comes to the tradition of North Star baseball, Josh was driving the vehicle,” Genke said. “Our kids know it and realize what it takes. They saw him accomplish a lot of great feats on the field, and his character off the field as well. And when your best players are your best human beings, you know a lot of good things are going to happen.”