The Stratford baseball team had the talent to make the postseason this year but fell one game short.

If the Spartans get over the hump in 2009, it will be with a new coach.

Former Klein Forest coach Jason Willis recently was hired at Stratford, succeeding Tony Mardirosian.

Willis coached Klein Forest for three seasons. Last year, his team finished 3-16 overall and 1-11 in 16-5A in 2008.

Mardirosian, who was fired during a meeting in mid-February but didn’t tell his players until April, stayed on to coach the Spartans to fifth-place in District 19-5A. Stratford finished 17-10 overall and 8-6 in district.

The Spartans should return all but four players from last year’s team, including their top four hitters in Jake Miller (.407, three home runs, 11 doubles), Jarrod Musgrove (.339), Carson Brown (.325) and Mark Benninger (.323). Also back will be senior-to-be Kevin Hahn, who had four homers last year and went 6-2 as a pitcher.

Just to be clear …

The new baseball coach at Cypress Lakes is Jeff Wallis, the former Strake Jesuit coach who left the Crusaders after the 2007 season. He did stay on at the school, however, to teach and coach football last year.

Wallis, a 1984 Strake Jesuit graduate who had taught at the school since 1991, was succeeded by Raul Garcia-Rameau. Recent rumors led to confusion that Garcia-Rameau left for Cy Lakes, which opens this fall along with Cypress Ranch as the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s ninth and 10th high schools.

“Last year we hired a new coach (Garcia-Rameau) and the previous coach (Wallis) stayed with us,” Strake Jesuit athletic director Bill McDonald said Wednesday. “When someone said (Cy Lakes’) new coach came from Strake Jesuit, I think that led to some confusion.”

Cy Ranch’s coach will be John Pope, Cy-Fair’s former varsity assistant.

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