CHS Baseball looks for competitive year at both varsity and JV levels
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Chester High School Head Baseball Coach Jeremy Blechle is confident that the 2011 Baseball Yellow Jackets will be very competitive this season.
"With a strong senior class and a great group of juniors and sophomores the Varsity Team has a chance to put up a good number of wins this year", claimed Blechle. "The pitching staff will be strong due to a vast amount of experience and the bullpen is full of eager and willing pitchers."
Blechle carries a regular roster of 11 varsity players including five seniors, Justin Eggemeyer, Zach Lochhead, Brandon Straight, Jeremy Wahl, and Trever Brant. Juniors include Matt Heberlie, Greg Rowald and Brandon Young. Sophomores include Caleb Arbeiter, Boyd Miles and Dalton Misuraca. From time-to-time Blechle pulls up members from the JV squad to fill in where needed.
Blechle notes, "The long term goal for the team is to be extremely competitive in the Black Diamond Conference (BDC) this season." This will be the inaugural year for CHS Baseball to compete in the BDC and Blechle would like to enter with a bang.
The Jackets have started out very strong in pre-conference action with a record of 6-3. The Jackets have won against Steeleville, Shawnee, Waterloo Gibault, Trico and Valmeyer in regular season non-conference games and they went 2-0 at the Marissa Tournament April 2 with wins over Elverado and Crab Orchard.
The JV Yellow Jackets have a full stable of talented players with 11 freshmen and nine sophomores. Sophomores include Patrick McMath, Austin Barnhart, Alec Weir, Casey Venable, Chris Schwartz, Mike Roth, Boyd Miles, Dalton Misuraca and Caleb Arbeiter.
Freshmen include Austin Redeker, Johnathan Brake, John Hanger, Brad Asselmeier, Kramer Eggemeyer, Brenton Atchison, Jacob Lochhead, Alex Yankey, Colin Canady, Trey Barthol and Jared Johnson.
Blechle states, "The JV Team hopes to make it "back-to-back" winning seasons. With 11 freshmen and nine full-time sophomores, numbers are up in the program. This team is very talented and dedicated and they work hard in practice and even harder during games."
JV Coach, Josh Hecht states, "The 2011 JV Baseball Team brings a very talented group to the diamond." Hecht notes, "The freshman class has brought a group that has played together in grade school or summer ball for many years. Our sophomores have made a tremendous leap from last year and many of them are even seeing plenty of quality playing time at the varsity level.
Hecht further claims that he is very excited this season with the numbers in the program rising and the great attitudes being demonstrated by the JV players on a daily basis. The JV Jackets are currently 2-1 for the early 2011 season with wins over Marissa and Trico. The JV lost to Red Bud in their first contest this spring.
The Yellow Jackets will host five more home games this season on April 6 (Dupo), April 13 (Perryville), April 14 (Elverado), April 19 (Johnston City) and April 29 (Hamilton County. They will also host a home game at Rent One Park in Marion April 12 against Carmi-White County.
All regular season home games are played at the Cohen Fields in Chester beginning at 4:30 p.m. The game at Rent One Park in Marion, which is a Minor League Park, home of the Miners, will begin at 4:30 p.m.