Cooper comes through for Legion team

GARNER— Welcome to the varsity, Jacob Cooper.

Rowan County head coach Jim Gantt didn’t ask much of the 15-year-old left-hander Friday afternoon.

Rutherford County had knocked starter Phillip Goodman out of the game in only one inning. Rowan trailed 4-0 in an elimination game at the American Legion Baseball State Tournament, and all Cooper had to do was limit Rutherford’s offense and wait for a Rowan rally.

Cooper, who played for the East Rowan High School junior varsity team in the spring, did his job. Rowan’s offense did, too, pulling out a 6-5 victory to send Rutherford home.

“He was the difference in the game,”Gantt said. “He gave us a chance.”

“Amazing,”added third baseman Bobby Parnell, who tied the game with a two-run double in the seventh. “He’s been throwing it good all season.”

Cooper boasted a gaudy 5-0 record and 2.83 earned run average entering this tournament. But never had he been in such a pressure-packed situation.

When he trotted to the mound to start the second inning, Rutherford’s players quickly gathered in front of the dugout to inspect the new hurler. They sounded less than impressed at the slow, deliberate delivery.

The first batter he faced, Paul Fain, looped a single up the middle before Cooper induced two pop-ups and picked off Fain.

He retired the side in order in the third and fifth innings. Rutherford’s left-handed heavy lineup grounded weakly to first base five times in the middle innings. Post 423 struggled to stay back on Cooper’s variety of off-speed pitches, lunging on their front feet at pitches that ended up out of the strike zone.

The only time Cooper got in trouble was in the fourth, when he allowed a pair of doubles to Mark Hudson and Andrew Norville to extend Rutherford’s lead to 5-2.

“I definitely went in there relaxed,”Cooper said. “I threw good in the bullpen and I knew the defense would do the work. We’ve got a great team. I just had to keep them down and let the offense do its work.”

Cooper gave way to Spencer Steedley after surrendering a double to start the eighth inning, but his fellow lefty from East — the varsity — got out of the jam, then saved it in the ninth.

With Cooper’s six innings of four-hit, one-run ball, he dropped his ERA to a team-best 2.63 in 41 innings of work.

“Cooper’s kind of a calming effect. “He doesn’t get overly excited,”Gantt said. “He goes out there in a game and looks like a pitcher. He has command, control, he fields his position, covers first. There’s more to it than just throwing strikes.”

Rowan pitching coach Sandy Moore impressed that upon Cooper from the start of the summer. The months of work those two logged in the bullpen paid off in one shining moment on Friday.

“Especially the way he was at the beginning of the year — when he first started his mechanics were way out of whack,”Gantt said. “Coach Moore has straightened all that out with him. They put in a lot of time for him to become a whole lot better.”

And it’s just the beginning for the future varsity hurler and returning Legion veteran. “He’s already asking about off-season workouts, how to get bigger and stronger,” said Gantt.

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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4287 or shanf@salisburypost.com .