Cooper baseball played went 1-2 in the Section 6AAA tournament as the seventh seed last week, facing second seed Mound Westonka on May 28, sixth seed Edison on May 30, and fifth seed Orono on June 1.
The team faced Mound Westonka in the opening game and found a promising start. Kameron Fox hit an early double, reaching second on an error. Arlo Meyer then hit an RBI single to get Fox home for the first run of the game. But the hosts answered back, eventually winning 7-1 to move Cooper to the elimination bracket.
Cooper stayed alive with a 7-3 win against Edison in the first round of the elimination bracket on May 30 playing at Northeast Athletic Field. Cooper played Edison twice this season in non-conference play, going 1-1 across two very different games. The Hawks lost the first game 21-0 on April 11, damaged by two run-heavy innings for Edison in the third and fifth. Cooper turned the tables on May 20, beating Edison 5-2 amid a strong end to the regular season.
In the playoffs, Edison struck first with a run in the bottom of the first, scoring through a stunning home run hit to make it 1-0 despite a strong start for junior pitcher Arlo Meyer. Cooper responded well in the second inning, loading the bases with Simon Gullickson, Owen Vetter and Rod’yae Ingram, the latter on as a courtesy for Blake Hansen. EJ Simmons earned a walk to bring Gullickson home, before Fox hit a rocketing two-RBI single to get Vetter and Ingram to home plate. Simmons, Fox and Matthew Gerding all walked home, the latter two on due to box calls, before Christopher Giroux ran home on a wild pitch. By the time the dust had settled, Cooper led 7-1. Three crisp kills by Meyer in the bottom of the second ensured that the lead stood.
In the moments between the second and third innings, the Cooper coaching staff hammered home a message to their players, insisting that the team not allow a strong start to temper their energy level.
Cooper head coach Rob Eberle, who joined the team in 2022 with a mission of guiding the program to steady improvement alongside assistant coach Sid Levin, noted that playing intensity has been the main goal of the season.
“The one thing we’re working on is matching the intensity of the team we’re playing. Whether or not they can execute the game better than us, can we play just as hard as they can, play it inning by inning,” Eberle said. “That has been our goal. It’s my third year here now and there have been times when things go bad and it’s hard to keep that energy going, but we’ve been sustaining it this year for really the last 15 games.”
Edison did strikeout Cooper quickly in the third, but Cooper did keep their tempo up with a strikeout by Meyer, catch by Fo, and tag by Meyer in response.
The next two innings were scoreless with Rylee Vierzba and Vetter as the most promising base runners. Giroux, Fox and Gerding all did well with catches in the field while Vetter was a reliable stopgap at first base. Cooper led 7-1 at the top of the sixth.
Edison earned two runs in the bottom of the sixth to narrow the gap, but catches by Fox and Cole Peltier helped clean up the Hawks’ play and end the damage. Cooper then wrapped up the battle with two kills and a catch for Meyer to win 7-3. It was Cooper’s first section win since 2018, a 2-1 battle with Mound Westonka, which in itself was a first win in three years.
Eberle noted after the game that regardless of the overall picture in the section tournament, the win over Edison helped show how much work the team has done on and off the field this season.
“I knew I had a very good opportunity with these boys going into this game. I put out our number one pitcher, [Arlo Meyer], our team MVP that I named last night, and I knew we would get a good game,” Eberle said. “I love building baseball players but I love building better people more. We’re a family here and we work together. We won’t always get along but we’ve got to have a common goal and a common mission. ... I’m really happy for the boys, this is our first section win in a long time.”
The week reached its end on June 1 when Cooper traveled to play Orono in the next round of the elimination bracket, facing a dose of heartbreak in a 1-0 loss to the hosts. Cooper fought hard to earn a rare second win in sections, but Orono found a late winner with a big hit with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
Cooper baseball will graduate three seniors, including Kameron Fox, Blake Everhardt and Blake Hansen.
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