While Oxford skipper Chris Palmer has some scouting information on his team’s state regional playoff opponent, Sherburne-Earlville coach, Brian Hicks, has precise information on that very team, Cooperstown.
Hicks’ Marauders played the Redskins twice in the regular season losing at Doubleday Field, 6-5, and dropping a 10-inning contest later in the season. “They are a team that was 0-10 in our division three years ago, but they’ve had the same team two years in a row, and are senior-dominated,” Hicks said. “They are solid up the middle on defense, and they’re just fundamentally sound.”
Leading that experienced team, however, is junior catcher Phillip Pohl, the Center State Conference Player of the Year as a sophomore, and according to Hicks, will likely repeat that honor this season. “That kid is just a monster,” Hicks said. “Behind the plate, nothing gets by him and you just can’t run on him. He has unbelievable quickness, and he throws peas down to second.
“As a hitter, if the situation is right, you want to walk him. He is a dead pull hitter and he hits the ball hard. Their team as a whole loves that first-pitch fastball. You seldom want to throw that.”
Pohl will likely receive for unbeaten senior pitcher Luke Banner, who went 7-0 on the season, but was knocked out of the game in the seventh inning by the Marauders in the second contest. Not a hard thrower, Hicks said, Banner does hit his spots consistently, and he has a strong defense behind him led by Dale Petroskey. Petroskey, another senior for the Redskins, batted over .500 during the regular season and is a NCAA Division One signee. He will attend the University of Vermont in the fall.
“We know they are a strong defensive team,” Palmer said. “Of the teams still out there playing, we think Cooperstown may be the best of the final eight.”
Knowing this, Palmer realizes his team has an excellent opportunity. “Anything can happen on any given day,” Palmer said. “We are capable of beating them, but we know that works both ways. We found that out playing Norwich at the start of the season and Delhi last month. That’s baseball.”
Oxford’s hitting has steadily improved each game going from six hits in a win over Edison, to nine against Elmira Notre Dame, then busting out for 14 hits – seven of the extra-base variety – in a 13-8 Section IV title win over Candor. What has countered that hitting is shaky fielding in which the Blackhawks have committed nearly 10 errors over the past two games. “At this level, making that many errors, you won’t get away with it,” Palmer said. “We’ll have to shore things up and be fundamentally sound.”
As a side note, these two teams are not unfamiliar with each other. Four years ago – and with many of the same cast of players for both sides – the two clubs played for the Otsenango Pony League title. Oxford won that game and hopes for a repeat. “We believe we have a really good shot,” Palmer said. “We’ve been hitting the ball hard of late and putting it in play.”
The two squads meet today at 4 p.m. at Union-Endicott High School’s Sylvester Field.