hja1224

If Morris is not the QB then Cooper will struggle IMO. He can play many positions but he is far and away the best QB option Cooper has from what I've seen.

Junior's AJ Collins and Jared Blank from Cooper.

Congrats to Jake!!

I'm far from a Cov Cath "guy" but I do like several of their players that I have met over the years. My thoughts were my opinions on why the #1 team most years does not win the Region more than they do. I just think in the Regional that good teams that can defend the bunt, on turf especially, can get Cov Cath off their game. I may be wrong but that's my thought. Dixie was the better team today and deserved to win by playing solid defense with zero errors. And I believe you are correct when you say you don't "right" for a living!!

Cov Cath bunts to start inning's a lot of times, not just sac bunts. Heck, I think they went over to Ohio last year and beat a top 5 team by bunting on the first 4 or 5 batters and scored their only runs of the game. IMO if you take the bunt away during the regular season Cov Cath loses their share of games against these teams they are losing to in the regional. I know they lost to Dixie, Conner and Ryle this year but there is not much difference with them and a lot of others if the bunt doesn't work. They are always still a very good team but they manufacture a lot of regular season wins with the bunt.

I honestly believe it is because they play on turf where their bunt is not effective. In grass you get weird rolls and the balls stop 10 feet from home plate as they bunt very well. On turf the ball keeps rolling and you get "clean" rolls, etc.. At least mentally I think it neutralizes it for the other team. Great job by Parker on the mound and a rough day for the Cov Cath left fielder.

Well, I just found out a friend of mine was the umpire. Before I describe the play I will tell you no one takes umpiring any more seriously than he does. My son plays baseball and he is an umpire for softball and baseball so we discuss strange plays all the time that we see and he quizzes me daily at work as he is trying to get me to go umpire with him. He is always looking at the rule book but as you know there are some differences in rules for baseball and softball and for school and summer so there is no way a non-professional can keep up with every little rule but I think he is one of the best at knowing the rules. Now to the play in question. The young lady was warned earlier in the game. I asked about the 2nd at bat that was being questioned on here and he didn't rule that as being thrown. On the play in question, it clearly was. His first thought was the correct decision and that was the substitute runner, no out, and she should be restricted to the bench. He just did a youth baseball game last weekend where the rule he had was an ejection and an out so a similar play was fresh in his mind. Before he made the call he started to question himself so he asked the other two umpires. One was the TRAINER for softball officials but they both said what was called on the field. He informed the coach of the out and reason and the coach said something as to "I've tried all year to try and get her not to throw it", so he was ok with the call I assume. He kept thinking to himself as play resumed that he is not sure that was right so he looked up the play right after the game and realized he blew it. He is not filling out the ejection form, or whatever, to the KHSAA so she wil be allowed to play. He was actually talked into doing district because he was rated high by coaches but he normally avoids postseason play. I told him to trust HIS call as he prepares probably more or as much as any umpire around here. He apologizes for his error. Hope this clears some things up.

Good question, but IMO, if you can play football in 103 then you should be able to play baseball in 120!! I know that's not the answer you are looking for though.

Cooper came in with a team batting average of .253 on the season and only two players hit above .300, against their toughest season scheule in their four year history, so I figured it would be tough to score without a couple of errors or walks by Ryle. The problem was the boys couldn't give Ryle a chance to make any errors. Most of the kids had a good approach against a tough pitcher by swinging at the first pitch fastball strike. Some fouled that pitch and others just missed. The change-up is the key pitch for Downs as it comes out of the same arm slot with the same arm motion as his mid 80's fastball but then drops off the table. Very impressive performance!! AJ Collins was equally impressive and the best performance I've seen from him, including his no-hitter last week against Boyd County. I thought Cooper under achieved most of the year defensively but they played error free ball last night. Cooper has their entire pitching back next year and seven starters return so I look for more wins next year. I've seen Ryle 4 times this year and they don't seem to hit as well as years past but they have pitching and enough solid players to make a run. Good luck the rest of the season.

^I never get too excited over poll's, especially in high school where most coaches or writers don't see half the teams. With Ryle's wins this year over the so-called higher ranked teams, they should easily be top 15 and probably deserve top 10.

I agree, the same amount it took us to get all the way over there :thumb:

So, HHS cancels the return game at Cooper Thursday due to number of games and keeps the home game versus Conner on Friday. I guess I can't blame them as I would rather have a home game versus traveling. Cooper was able to pick up Lloyd on Friday and if Dixie doesn't cancel on Saturday, Cooper will end up with 35 games. Three teams have cancelled in the last week so we are lucky to get to 35. It is a tough juggling act.

Cooper lost the 2nd game Saturday to Madison Central but all Junior's and Senior's had left after the first game for the Prom as well. I think Cooper had a 6-0 lead before being beat 14-6. Cooper starting to play better at the right time!

Congrats to Jake. He is a nice young man!!

I did not hear he was going there. He will do very well there.

I think I counted another five runners out on base running mistakes. I think this is four straight one run losses and all four games had at least four runners out on base paths. Three being picked off first by right handed pitchers. I still believe they will compete with some top teams if they can fix the mistakes on the bases as they are hitting decent.

I believe the Cov Cath versus Cooper Varsity will be made up this morning at 10am at Cov Cath, then Cooper goes to Dixie at 3pm.

Cov Cath hitting will come and then with their pitching will be extremely tough to beat.

I'm friends with the plate umpire for this game and he asked me today about the catchers as that's always his main concern when he's behind the plate I told him not to worry as they will be two of the best, if not the best, in the 9th Region this year. He sent me a text tonight and said I was correct, "they were awesome". I assume it was Lankeit and Norton.

Congrats to Blake!!

Cooper used one of their better pitchers the first three inning's. He gave up 3 runs but should have been zero. Just one game and it's early in the season so kids will play their way in, or out, of the line-up based on their performance. The key is to be improving as the season goes along. There are several new varsity players this year so no need to panic yet, but last night was not pretty.

Very ugly game on Cooper's part. I quit counting after 11 errors or plays that should have been made (miscommunication on pop-up, not charging routine ground balls, etc..). They also had 4 runners out on base running mistakes. Holy Cross did not use their top pitchers and Cooper didn't take advantage. Hopefully this was just "one of those games". Congrats to Holy Cross!

IMO, this is their best team, top to bottom. I have not seen Boone or Conner but I think they will be competitive. Whether it's enough to win that one tough district semi-final game, we will just have to wait and see but this year should be there best chance to date.

It was good to get the season started but the jitters were there in the first inning. Ryle got 4 runs on 2 hits. A walk and error on the pitcher helped account for the 4 runs. Carella started for Cooper and went 3 innings. He did very well after the first 4 hitters reached. Cooper only had 5 hits but put the ball in play against some good pitching. I'm not sure who started for Ryle but I heard the UC recruit (Downs) was the lefty who came in relief and he throws well. Cooper's reliever was Colin Smith and he pitched a scoreless 4th and 5th before Ryle got to him for 4 in the bottom of the 6th. For losing 8-1 there were some positives for the Cooper team to build on. A couple of errors in the field and a couple of missed signs at the plate cost them some but for seeing live pitching for the first time it wasn't as bad as the score looks.

So if the school your son went to had enough HS players to FIELD a team then you would not have allowed your son to try out for that team, correct? As a guy I used to coach with always said "I only need nine". It's a shame if a school does not have at least 12-14 kids that would like to play, regardless if they have talent or not.