Willard Middle Schools baseball team celebrates its championship

Willard Middle School’s baseball team defeated the Montera Toros 8-6 yesterday afternoon to win the middle school league title. The win took the Phoenix’s season record to 9-1. According to athletic director, Josh Church, that marks the best record since the mid-90s for the squad.

Church reports:

The game provided many highlights — a second successful, perfect bunt by Eli Williams, solid hitting by Gerardo Barron, Bowen Johnson and the Schmidt brothers, great fielding by infielders Jayson Summers and Dareon Thompson, solid pitching by Ben Schrider, etc. And of course, some great coaching by Aaron Jorgensen and John Daniel.

Church said cuts in many education districts had badly hurt middle school sports. He believes the league is the only one in the East Bay and perhaps the only one in Northern California.

Lance Knobel (Berkeleyside co-founder) has been a journalist for nearly 40 years. Much of his career was in business journalism. He was editor-in-chief of both Management Today, the leading business magazine...