Cooper steers Pirates’ ship

Chris Yemma

“The Vulture,” as his teammates have started to call him, made an

appearance for the third time this season, swooping in at the top of

the sixth inning Tuesday to pluck the game out for Orange Coast

College.

Freshman relief pitcher Daniel Cooper pitched three full innings,

striking out four while allowing no runs and one hit, to help boost

the Pirates to their fifth win of the season, a 7-6 triumph over

visiting College of the Canyons.

Cooper earned his third win of the season, and in the same fashion

as always -- entering for a few innings and coming out with the W.

“Cooper came in again and did a great job for us,” Orange Coast

Coach John Altobelli said. “As a freshman he’s been doing a great job

keeping us in ballgames.

“He’s been huge for us so far. The guys have been calling him The

Vulture because he does little work, but gets the W.”

A product of Costa Mesa High, Cooper has been instrumental in the

early stages of this season for the junior college directly across

the street from his high school alma mater.

It was only one season ago that he pitched for the Mustangs,

posting a 2.84 ERA and recording 71 strikeouts. At the end of his

senior season he was selected by the Montreal Expos in Major League

Baseball’s first-year player draft in a draft-and-follow agreement.

Under the draft-and-follow agreement, the Expos, now the

Washington Nationals, own the rights to signing Cooper until June,

should he blossom into something they would be looking for.

But the Pirates (5-1) are on Cooper’s mind as of now. In Tuesday’s

win against the Cougars (2-4), “The Vulture” pitched the sixth,

seventh and eighth innings following Ryan Clear, icing the visitors

after they had racked up six runs.

And that was after Cooper was cooped up for three games due to

rain delays last week. But practice delays didn’t seem to phase the

pitcher.

“It feels great,” Cooper said. “I’m not a big fan of practice, but

I love coming out and pitching the games.”

Cooper’s pitching allowed the Pirates to seek just one run to take

the lead. That run came in the bottom of the eighth inning with both

teams tied, 6-6.

After going down in the count, 0-2, freshman Matt Meadows stared

down four straight pitches and walked to first. A Luke Beck fly out

ensued for the first out, but Stephen Schneider then singled to

left-center field and advanced to second on an errant throw. Meadows

advanced to third.

And with one out away, Stephen Cope aired out a sacrifice fly to

bring the winning run home. Closing pitcher Beck struck out two and

forced a groundout to seal the Pirates’ fifth win in six games

opening the season.

“It’s a good start for us, but it’s nonconference,” Altobelli

said. “If you look in our conference, everyone’s got about the same

record, or better.

“We try to tell our guys, don’t get too high or too low, because

when conference comes around, it’s going to be a dogfight every

game.”

Big innings have started to become a theme for the Pirates during

the first few games. OCC used a six-run second inning to pull away

after going down, 1-0. Beck, who was credited with the save for

pitching the Pirates’ last inning, sparked the second-inning scoring

spree with a solo home run over the right center-field fence.

Cope and Robbie Blauer drilled doubles, while Gary Gattis, Matt

Cline and Bobby Slater all tallied singles on the way to the Pirates’

six-run, six-hit inning.

“We’ve had [big innings], though I wouldn’t mind spreading the

wealth out a little bit more through the nine innings,” Altobelli

said. “But we had a good chance and the guys have been swinging the

bats for the most part pretty good.”

Beck’s homer was his only hit, but Blauer finished hitting 3 for 4

on the day with his double in the second inning. Cope finished 1 for

3 with a double and the game-winning flyout.

Nonconference

Orange Coast 7,

College of the Canyons 6

Score by Innings

*--*

COC 1 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 - 6 11 1

Coast 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 1 x - 7 10 1

*--*

Earley, Geery (6) and Steinhardt; Clear, Hogue (5), Cooper (6),

Beck (9) and Banda. W -- Cooper, 3-0. L -- Geery, 0-1. Sv -- Beck

(1). 2B -- Petrucci (CC), Blauer (OCC), Cope (OCC). 3B -- Khosp (CC).

HR -- Beck (OCC).