The Hometown Treasure July 2011 | Page 19

by Coach Joel Mishler 2011 was a season of ups and downs, and then more schedule big school Valparaiso High School and then ups, as we ended up winning the sectional and losing NorthWood one more time, and that is ten games in eleven innings to the eventual state runners-up in outside of conference that are going to be challenges the regional. Going into the season, we had high hopes no matter what kind of team we have at Westview! As for the year, even though we had only one senior on always, our conference games were always tough games the squad. We had a good group of juniors returning to win as once again Fairfield, Churubusco, Fremont, that had a lot of varsity experience from a year ago and and Angola had exceptional teams this year while the we knew we had five freshmen coming in that could rest of the conference teams battled very well against help us at the varsity level. Our lone senior had a good us as well. We battled Central Noble into extra innings July 2011 Westview Baseball 2011 Season Recap Sectional Champs! (Back row - left to right): Assistant coach Jason Rahn, Tarrin Beachy, Judah Zickafoos, Mike Hicks, Adrian Brandenberger, Assistant coach Steve Christner, and Assistant coach Jerry Christner. Second row: Head coach Joel Mishler, Jared Berkey, Jomar Weaver, Luke Miller Kohle Christner, Darren Stillson, and Assistant coach Keith Roth. Front: Assistant coach Rick Yoder, Brant Yoder, Austin Schlabach, Zac Mishler, Hunter Christner, and Damon Miller. Photo by Sonda Yoder Phone: 260-463-4901 • Fax 888-439-6528 • The Hometown Treasure junior year on the mound and was projected to be our clean-up hitter, so when all things were considered, we thought we had a chance for a winning season, and possibly some post-season success. In my estimation, we have one of the tougher 2A schedules in the state when one considers our nonconference schedule. Our first 8 games were with 3A sectional winner NorthWood, Conference champion Jimtown who ended with 18 wins on the season, Rockford H.S. (2 games) out of Grand Rapids, Michigan that is a huge school and has a very good program, Niles H.S. (out of Michigan), 4A Mishawaka H.S., 4A South Bend Washington H.S., 3A Wawasee H.S., and 4A Northridge H.S., it would be hard pressed to think any 2A school in the state would start out with a tougher schedule than that. Add to that non-conference Page 19 before losing against a 6’5” RHP flame thrower that is headed for Div. I powerhouse Coastal Carolina in college! Throw into all of that, the fact that Zac Mishler (our lone senior and #1 pitcher) pulled a hamstring in the fifth game of the year vs. Mishawaka and missed 20 games for us while Jared Berkey (starting LF and junior with a lot of varsity experience) hurt himself in game three of the season and missed 17 games, and Brant Yoder (our jr. lead-off hitter and starting centerfielder) missed ten games due to a foot injury, to end up with a 14-17 record and a sectional championship is really a pretty impressive feat these young men accomplished this year! Our freshmen and lone sophomore really stepped to the plate and came through in a big way, continued on next page