Published: May 15, 2008 12:55 pm         

Coop baseball wins 8th straight,clinches division

By ERIC AHLQVIST
Cooperstown Crier

Philip Pohl went batty last week.

The senior catcher, mired in a hitting slump, decided to switch from an aluminum to a wood bat before Friday’s game against Canastota, and responded with a triple and home run in a 7-3 victory. On Monday, he hit two long home runs over the leftfield fence at Doubleday Field in his only two official at bats, giving him three home runs and a triple with the wood bat.

``I think I’ll keep using it,’’ dead panned Pohl, who played in a wood bat league last summer.

Pohl’s home runs on Monday led to a key, 8-5, Center State Conference victory over Mt. Markham, the Redskins’ eighth straight win. The next night Cooperstown beat Canastota again, 8-3, to earn their second straight CSC Division II title. The Redskins are 9-0 in league play and 12-3 overall a year after winning the Class C title. ``We haven’t swept Mt. Markham in a season series since I’ve been playing,’’ said Pohl, a four year starter heading to Clemson University next fall on a baseball scholarship. ``We started out 4-3 this year, but obviously we’ve been playing well since then and really finding our groove.’’

``It’s been a pleasant evolution,’’ said CCS baseball coach Frank Miosek. ``We went from three guys contributing early in the season to 10 or 11 now. The other guys have really come along and filled in the missing pieces.’’

Pohl, a dominant pitcher when he’s not catching, and fellow senior and captain Jim Fort are two big reasons why CCS was able to repeat this season despite losing six starters to graduation. Fort pitched six innings against Canastota, striking out 10 and walking just one. Fort has a 6-1 record on the mound, while Pohl is 3-1, and Kyle Liner and Brad Ashford have been effective on the mound as well, Miosek said.

Softball moves to 9-8 The Cooperstown softball team lost three of five games last week, but their 9-8 record has already earned them a trip back to sectionals after missing the Class C tournament last year. Two of the three losses came to powerhouse Canastota by a combined 31-2 score, including a 21-1 loss on Tuesday when CCS had just eight healthy players and had to call up a junior varsity player just before the game.

Cooperstown came up with one of their best wins of the season last Wednesday at Waterville, as freshman pitcher Anna Sams struck out 13 batters and allowed three hits in a 5-2 victory. The win avenged an earlier season loss to Waterville. ``Anna pitched well, and we hit the ball well and made just two errors,’’ said head coach Dave Bliss. ``It was a good win over a very solid club.’’

Cailin Huggins had two hits and Sawyer Graham also had two hits and drove in two runs.

On Saturday, the Lady Redskins lost to Class A Oneonta at home, 5-2. Oneonta led 2-0 heading to to the top of the seventh inning, but broke the game open with three runs.

Cooperstown’s Sam Fox drove in both runs with a single in the bottom of the seventh, and had two hits.

On Monday, Cooperstown took a 3-2 victory over Mt. Markham when winning pitcher Sams singled in Jen Wehner in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a 2-2 tie. Wehner had singled and stole second to start the inning. Sams struck out 10 in the game.