Alhough the Cougars showed glimpses of promise, they never got untracked, finishing 0-14 in the division.

Westland went 7-3 in non-league play to finish 7-17 overall.

The Cougars nearly pulled off a Division I district tournament win, leading Whetstone 5-0 in the sixth inning before falling 6-5.

Coach David Daniels will look to replace seven seniors in Tyler Entingh, Brandon King, Esteylon Martinez, Trever Murphy, Jose Reyes, Brody Seiler and Kevin Simms.

"They were a good group," Daniels said. "I'm going to miss them all. You spend that much time with those boys, you kind of get close to them and attached to them, so I'll miss them and I wish them all well in their postsecondary life."

Reyes, who played shortstop and pitched, was honorable mention all-OCC. He batted .297 with 10 runs, five doubles and a team-high three home runs and 14 RBI. On the mound, Reyes collected two of the wins.

Murphy was the team's scholar athlete.

Junior Chad Helsel was named second-team all-OCC after hitting a team-high .373 with 16 runs, five doubles, a triple, home run and 10 RBI.

Junior Sean Clutter, who was named the team's MVP, batted .279 with 11 runs, two doubles and 10 RBI.

"Sean is a leader," Daniels said. "People throw that word around a lot when it means nothing, but Sean does have some of those qualities. The other kids know that he has a good baseball IQ and he knows what's going on."

Simms and junior pitcher/outfielder Lucas Pencek earned coaches' awards. Daniels said Pencek was the top pitcher by season's end.

Other players who could return next season include juniors Sean Beasy (IF), Kyle Church (C), Matt DeBord (utility/P) and John Slagle (IF/P).

Westland opened the season by winning five of its first nine games.

The Cougars opened with a 5-3 win against Westerville South on March 31 and swept Marion-Franklin 14-4 and 12-1 on April 4 to improve to 3-1.

Westland's early success also included wins against Worthington Christian 9-2 and Fairbanks 10-0 on April 18.

The Cougars' other wins came against Briggs 4-1 on April 28 and Franklin Heights 8-0 in the South-Western Classic on May 2.

Westland was competitive in several OCC-Central games, falling to Worthington Kilbourne 1-0 on May 7 and Upper Arlington 6-5 on May 9.

The Cougars closed season by losing to Central Crossing 6-5 on May 19 after the Comets scored twice in the bottom of the seventh.

"We had Central Crossing on the ropes, and we just barely lost to them in the end," Clutter said.

"At the very end, by the time we saw the whole season, the pitching ended up probably being one of our better things," Daniels said. "Going into the season, it was one of things that I was worried about and it ended up being one of our more consistent aspects of the game."

Westland finished eighth in the division behind Dublin Coffman (12-2), Hilliard Davidson (11-3), Hilliard Darby (8-6), Thomas Worthington (7-7), Upper Arlington (7-7), Central Crossing (6-8) and Kilbourne (5-9).

"It's a tough division, and it just kind of shows sometimes how we're just overmatched," Daniels said. "We played competitively in probably 10 of those 14 games and then we got blown out in three or four of them."

At a glance

•Record: 7-17 overall, 0-14 in OCC-Central (eighth)

•Seniors lost: Tyler Entingh, Brandon King, Esteylon Martinez, Trever Murphy, Jose Reyes, Brody Seiler and Kevin Simms

•Key returnees: Shawn Beasy, Sean Clutter, Chad Helsel and Lucas Pencek