Lincoln-Way East continues dominant pitching with Cooper Johnson’s complete game

FRANKFORT – Lincoln-Way East’s pitching staff seems to be engaging in a elaborate game of anything you can do I can do better.

And on Saturday morning, it was Cooper Johnson’s turn to take the reins.

He answered that challenge with aplomb, allowing just one run in a complete game 5-1 victory over visiting Lincoln-Way Central.

It was the 11th time this season that Lincoln-Way East has held an opponent to three runs or less.

“I was just attacking people with my off-speed,” Johnson said. “I trust my off speed a lot especially with this downwind. It’s going to move a lot more than usual.”

That game plan certainly seemed to stymie the Knights, who had just four hits in the game. Two of those hits came in the third inning and led to Lincoln-Way Central’s only run coming across on a Filippo Baratta groundout.

It was also the only inning where Johnson faced more than four batters.

“I was just attacking the hitters,” Johnson said. “And was trying to find a groove.”

That’s a groove that Lincoln-Way East (15-4, 6-2 SWSC) has found more often than not.

“We’ve got an amazing pitching staff here,” Johnson said. “A lot of that is thanks to coach Bill Copp (Lincoln-Way East’s pitching coach) he teaches us a lot of stuff.”

Lincoln-Way East coach John McCarthy certainly isn’t taking his pitching staff’s efforts for granted, but it has become something he’s come to expect more often than not.

“We’re taking it one day at a time of course,” McCarthy said. “But Coach Copp has done an incredible job with the staff and the staff is feeding off one another right now.”

The offense wasn’t quite as robust for the Griffins, but the pitching staff’s efforts have been ensuring that they don’t need much.

The Griffins scored two runs in the first inning with an inning that was extended by a Lincoln-Way Central (9-6, 4-2) error.

And while the Griffins didn’t have much more luck stringing together offense off of Lincoln-Way Central’s Liam Arsich for much of the game, Jacob Newman came up with big hit of the day for the Griffins with a bases clearing single in the third.

“That was a big hit for us,” McCarthy said. “I thought that really separated us in the game. It was a 2-1 game at that point. It was a huge two-out hit.”

It also gave Lincoln-Way East a bit of breathing room which was pivotal because it was the last of three Lincoln-Way East hits on the day.