Warrior nine finish third in Avocado League

Although Fallbrook High School’s baseball team finished the 2008 season with a 12-17 overall record which was identical to the Warriors’ 2007 mark, this year Fallbrook placed third in the Avocado League standings with a 7-8 record.

“It went okay. We had some good times and bad times,” said first-year Fallbrook head coach Jesse Schuveiller.

The finish behind Oceanside and Vista was an improvement from last year, when the Warriors’ 6-9 won-loss statistic in league competition tied Fallbrook for fourth.

The 2008 Warrior team included 11 seniors, but seven of those had never played varsity baseball. “We did not have a lot of depth on our pitching staff,” Schuveiller said.

“Luckily we had a couple of our younger guys step up,” Schuveiller said. “That was encouraging.”

One of those younger players was sophomore Chase Johnson, who threw a no-hitter against El Camino April 10. Another was freshman Vaughn Berderet, who won the final two games of the season for the Warriors on the mound.

“Extremely young, very inexperienced team,” Schuveiller said.

Six of Fallbrook’s losses were by a single run. “I was very proud of my kids for just competing every single day. They were not scared of any single team we played,” Schuveiller said. “We asked the kids to compete every single day, and they definitely did that.”

Schuveiller expects that the year of experience will help the Warrior players and the team in 2009. “The talent is going to be very deep, and there’s going to be a lot of guys fighting for positions,” he said.

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