Published: May 08, 2008 11:13 am         

Redskins blank CV-S for fourth straight

By ERIC AHLQVIST
Cooperstown Crier

The Cooperstown baseball team won its fourth in a row while sending Cherry Valley-Springfield to their third straight loss with a 6-0 non-league win at Doubleday Field Tuesday afternoon.

The Redskins moved into first place in Division III of the Center State Conference with three league wins last week.

CCS, the defending league champions, are now 5-0 in league play with five division games remaining. The Patriots, winners of the last two Tri-Valley Championships, continued their midseason funk after losing league games to Gilbertsville- Mt. Upton and Worcester last week.

``Our bats have gone quiet and we’ve been committing a lot of costly errors,’’ said CV-S head coach Ed Dubben. ``We played better baseball against Cooperstown and hopefully we’re starting to come out of it.’’

CV-S is now 6-4 overall and 3-2 in T-V play with four league games remaining, including a big game at Milford Friday.

They are tied with Worcester for first place in the T-V East, and have home games remaining against the Wolverines and T-V West leading Edmeston. On Tuesday, Cooperstown’s Mac Curran and Brad Ashford combined to throw a two-hitter as the Redskins improved to 7-3 on the season.

Last Wednesday, Cooperstown pummeled Mt. Markham, 12-2, as Tyler Combs hit a grand slam home run in support of a complete game pitching performance from senior lefthander Jim Fort.

On Friday at home against previously undefeated Sherburne- Earlville, the Redskins’ Phil Pohl won a pitching duel against the Marauders’ Chris Brown. Pohl struck out 10 and allowed just three hits, while Brown struck out 12 and allowed four hits as Cooperstown won, 4-3.

Pohl was also involved in the pivotal offensive play. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning, he grounded to shortstop, and the throw home was wild, allowing two runs to score and giving Cooperstown a 4-3 lead.

``Phil’s competitive nature took over after that, and he bore down to retire the final six batters of the game,’’ Miosek said.

On Monday, sophomore Kyle Liner pitched a solid game over six innings, and homered to help his own cause in a 6-5 win at Sauquoit. ``We were sleepwalking through the first three innings and trailed 3-1, but Kyle’s home run woke us up,’’ Miosek said.

Cooperstown led 6-3 going to the bottom of the seventh inning, but Sauquoit put runners on first and second with one out. Fort relieved Liner, and allowed two bloop singles to make the score 6-5 before striking out the final two batters to get a hard-earned save.

Note: Cooperstown’s game with Oneonta scheduled for this Saturday at Doubleday Field has been moved to May 21 at 4:30 p.m. The Cooperstown softball team will host Oneonta at 11 a.m.