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).
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