Coop baseball stays undefeated with big conference wins

By GREG KLEIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Cooperstown won two blowouts and a tight conference game with a controversial ending in a four-day stretch to stay undefeated in baseball.

The Hawkeyes started the weekend by honoring their seniors at Doubleday Field on Friday, May 14, before a 14-1 win over Frankfort-Schuyler in a Center State Conference game.

Chris Ubner hit a grand slam home run and pitched four scoreless innings for the win.

Cooperstown led 11-0 before F-S got on the scoreboard off reliever Derek Moore in the sixth inning.

Treston Emerick relieved Moore and got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam, getting two outs on four pitches. Emerick finished the game with a scoreless seventh inning.

Ubner went 2-for-4 with 5 RBIs and two runs scored. He faced just 12 batters in four innings, although his defense helped him with two double plays. He got five strikeouts and gave up one walk and one hit.
Kendall Haney also had a home run, to almost the same spot in left center field where Ubner cleared the wall, and went 1-for-2 with two runs. Moore went 3-for-4 and scored two runs and Alex Poulson went 1-for-3 and scored three runs.

“I feel bad for them this year,” Cooperstown Coach Frank Miosek said. “Their football ended late. They just began practice. They did not get a lot of guys out. They don’t even have a J.V. team. It is hard this year. If you are not around the school or the kids are not at school, it makes recruiting harder.

“We got lucky,” he continued. “We almost won the state title two years ago and they were supposed to go to South Carolina for a spring break baseball camp before it got canceled by COVID. This year they did go. It was not a school thing, but Coach (Matt) Hazzard and some of the parents went. They did not get to play a lot of games, but they practiced together every day and it clearly helped them as a team.”

Cooperstown honored seniors Haney, Alex Hage, Alex Hascup, Poulson, Moore and Ubner, the heart of what Miosek called his best multi-year group of players he has had in more than three decades coaching at Cooperstown.

The players gave Miosek a special bat from Cooperstown Bat Company and noted that two of their fathers, Bruce Haney and Brian Hascup, played on Miosek’s first CCS team 31 years ago.

In addition, Moore’s step-father, Luke Banner, played for Miosek a few years after Haney and Hascup.
Saturday in Canastota, Poulson struck out 15 Canastota batters during six scoreless innings as the Hawkeyes improved to 6-0 with a 10-0 win.

Cooperstown broke the game open with a even-run sixth inning.

Ubner had two hits, an RBI and a run scored and Haney and Moore each scored two runs for Cooperstown.

Monday May 17, at Doubleday, Haney struck out five of the seven batters he faced and had a two RBI triple as the Hawkeyes stayed undefeated in baseball with a 6-3 win over visiting Sauquoit Valley in a Center State Conference game.

The game ended abruptly when Sauquoit Valley Coach Kory Lewandrowski got ejected following a disputed call at first base in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Cooperstown’s leadoff hitter, Poulson, had been called out on a hit to third. However, the home-plate umpire ruled that SV first baseman Nicholas Miller came off the bag and overruled the first-base umpire.
Lewandrowski argued the call, then threw his helmet at the dugout, leading to his ejection. SV did not have another coach with them and the game ended in a forfeit.

“It is an official game,” Miosek said. “Their coach got thrown out of the game and they did not have another coach available.

“It’s sad, because it took us out of a game,” Miosek said.

Cooperstown hit SV pitcher Ben LoGalbo well from the start.

With one out in the first inning, Haney got a single, advanced after a throwing error by Miller on a pickoff, and scored on Ubner’s single to right center field. Ubner stole second and scored on Hascup’s double to right center field. Hascup advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Treston Emerick’s RBI single in the hole between third and short.

In the bottom of the second inning, Ethan Kukenberger led the inning off with a walk and Poulson got hit by a pitch. Haney then tripled to the right field wall to score both runners, making it 5-0.
Emerick relieved Haney, who was on a pitch count, and gave up three runs in the top of the third inning, following a hit batter, a walk and RBI singles by Seamus Crowe and Anthony Nasser. However, Emerick got a strike out to end the inning.

Cooperstown got a run back in the bottom of the third inning when Hage walked, stole two bases and scored on a wild pitch for a 6-3 lead.

Emerick settled down in the top of the fourth and got three straight outs after hitting Miller in the lead-off spot.

Poulson led off the bottom of the fourth, leading to the game-ending contested call.
Haney was awarded the win and LoGalbo took the loss.

Cooperstown (7-0, 2-0) visits West Canada Valley in a Center State Conference game Wednesday, May 17