THUNDER BAY – By the time Jackson Cooke was five years old, he’d been on the ice in Detroit, celebrating the Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 Stanley Cup win.
His dad, Matt Cooke, spent 17 years in the NHL, including four seasons in Pittsburgh, and the youngster had the chance to meet his hockey heroes, like Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.
But instead of hockey, the younger Cooke picked baseball as his chosen sport, and from the looks of things this summer with the Thunder Bay Border Cats, the Vancouver-born catcher made the right choice.
Though he didn’t get a lot of playing time in the first half of the 2024 season, he’s making a case to be a fixture in the Cats lineup in the second half.
He continued his hot-hitting ways on Wednesday night, drilling his second home run of the season over the wall in centre-field at Port Arthur Stadium, the three-run, fourth-inning shot erasing an early 3-1 St. Cloud Rox lead.
The Border Cats would add three more runs in the bottom of the fifth and went on to down the visiting Rox 7-4, starting the second half the way they did the first – with a win.
“My first at bat, I missed a slider and popped it up to the catcher. They collided, but he held on to it, so it was a good play,” said Cooke, a sophomore at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to miss it again and he threw it again and I got it. It felt good.”
Cooke, the Thunder Bay designated hitter on Wednesday, finished the night 1-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly, driving in his fourth run of the night in the fifth.
The 20-year-old now has six hits in his last 13 at bats, and also drew two walks over the same four-game stretch.
“Definitely more at bats have helped. I changed my approach a little bit. I’m standing up a little taller, so it’s helping me see the ball a little more.”
The two teams traded runs in the first inning and St. Cloud started to threaten to add more in the second, with Trey King at the dish.
With a runner on first, King doubled off Thunder Bay starter Andrew Hardin. Ty Hamilton recovered he ball and fired a strike to second baseman Zane Skansi, who turned and threw to the plate, where Cole Ketzner snagged the ball and tagged out Henson trying to score all the way from first.
The good fortune didn’t last.
Brody Williams, the next St. Cloud batter, hit a deep fly ball to left-centre that bounced off the top of the wall and over, the two-run home run giving the Rox a 3-1 lead.
Hunter Day held the first-place Cats (1-0) in check until the fourth, but left with two outs in the fifth, responsible for seven runs – six of them earned.
Newcomer Riley Iffrig gave the Cats a three-run cushion with a two-run double to centre, and he later crossed the plate on Cooke’s flyball.
Reliever Peter Fusek took over for Hardin to start the fourth and gave the Border Cats 4.1 innings of solid relief, the lone run charged to him on a Carter Hanson sacrifice fly.
Fusek gave up six hits and gave way to Sean Heppner, who delivered bases loaded strikesouts to Jaixen Frost and Sawyer Smith to end the Rox biggest threat since the second inning.
“A lot of guys weren’t ready to go their first day up here, especially on the mound,” said Fusek, a second-year Border Cats, familiar with the second-half roster turnover.
“There was a short list of guys who were going to be hot today. Hardin didn’t have his best stuff today, but he’s been really good for us this year. We were able to swing the bats better lately. I was just excited to get on the mound and give as much as I had for as long as I could.”
The two teams meet again on Thursday night. Thunder Bay’s Jack Pineau will take to the mound for the Border Cats.
