Cooleen’s Arm and Bat Lift the Bears Over Pleasantville
By Danny Lopriore
Quinten Cooleen allowed one run over seven innings, laced two doubles and drove in a pair of runs to lead the visiting Briarcliff Bears baseball team to a 4-1 victory over Pleasantville at Parkway Field late Friday afternoon.
Cooleen, a tall righthander who bats lefthanded, struck out eight Panthers, walked none and allowed a single run in the sixth inning to earn the victory. He was helped out of a bases-loaded, no-out bind in the sixth when his shortstop, Jack Ryan, fielded a grounder up the middle, stepped on second base and fired to first for a double play.
“I try to keep the batters off balance because if they sit on a fastball they will be hitting all day,” said Cooleen, who was wearing the white cowboy hat the Bears’ players present to that day’s star of the game. “They have guys who can hit. You just have to keep them guessing.”
As for his own hitting prowess, Cooleen got his pitch and drove in two insurance runs in the sixth.
“I was just looking for my pitch to hit and I saw it the first pitch and took advantage,” he said. “I hit it right on the screws and it flew.”
Cooleen’s catcher, Julian Matthews, praised his pitcher’s ability to keep batters uncomfortable.
“His curveball was the best I’ve ever seen it,” Matthews said. “It broke about a foot and a half. He had batters look silly up there. He hit his spots with his fastball. He did everything right out there. As for the cold, we are used to it. You want to make fewer mistakes and make plays and we did that.”
The Bears, who topped the Panthers 15-2 at home last Wednesday as Noah Campo hit for the cycle and drove in six runs, completed a two-game series sweep of their league rivals to improve their record to 9-1. Pleasantville is now 8-2 after opening the season with eight straight wins.
Briarcliff took advantage of a wind-blown pop fly and two walks to score twice in the first inning without a hit. Ryan and second baseman Joe Scanga scored on a fielder’s choice and a throwing error for a 2-0 lead. Neither team would get a base hit until Cooleen hit the first of his two doubles in the fourth inning.
Pleasantville pitcher Brendan O’Neill matched Cooleen inning for inning and left in the fifth after allowing just two unearned runs on one hit.
“Brendan is our ace and has pitched great for us all year,” Panthers’ catcher Mike Matica said. “He was throwing strikes early. We made a couple of mistakes early that cost us. We really didn’t attack and hit at all early. We have to start hitting again like we did early in the season. We have two games with Westlake next week, which is a big rival. We want to win every single game we play now.”
The Panthers’ offense stalled against Cooleen, who was perfect through three innings before Nick Salzarulo hit a two-out double in the fourth inning. Salzarulo was stranded on second. Trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth, P’ville’s Massimo Stinziani, Danny Keon and Danny Melillo opened the inning with three straight singles before Cooleen induced the double play turned by Ryan. Stinziani scored, but Salzarulo grounded out to end the inning.
“I was a little nervous there, I am not going to lie,” said Cooleen. “I have a lot of faith that the guys behind me are going to get the job done and they did.”
Briarcliff coach John Schrader said his team has gotten closer since last year’s playoff loss to Croton and is focused on improving through the season. The Bears have now won eight in a row.
“You always try to get ahead early to take the lead,” Schrader said. “Their kid pitched very well against us, so getting those early runs helped. We want to try to get better as individuals and as a team now. There were some sour grapes losing to Croton last year in the sectionals and in our second game this year, our first loss. I’m not saying losing is good, but I think it got us going.”
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