Mau’s Ability to Get on Base, Steady Defense Leading Fayetteville in Quest for Another Title
Fayetteville baseball player Cooper Mau handles the hot corner as third baseman for the Lions team and also gets the job done at the plate.
Mau contributed nicely to last year’s state title team and currently leads the team in onbase percentage this season as they head into the regional finals this week against D’Hanis.
“Cooper, he’s probably one of the most level-headed kids we have on the team,” said Fayetteville head baseball coach Clint Jaeger. “He kind of keeps calm. He doesn’t get too worked up whether things are going good or bad. He’s a really smart kid. He’s involved in a lot of things and I think he’s just a well-balanced individual. He made state in UIL, he does 4H FFA, all different kinds of things. He’s just a blessing to coach.”
Mau’s consistency has earned him the nod for this edition’s Player of the Week.
Question: If you could give someone advice on playing third base, what would you say?
Answer: “Well, I’d say you need to make sure you practice a lot. Some of those shots that come down third base, they’re pretty quick. You got to be quick on your feet and have a big arm. You got to throw that sucker across the diamond really fast. Just got to put a lot of practice into it.”
Question: What are the keys to having such a good onbase percentage?
Answer: “I think the biggest key would be seeing the ball. I really struggled with that earlier this year. The second half of the year, I really got to seeing the ball and making sure the ball’s in the strike zone if I was going to swing at it and laying off anything that wasn’t. It’s definitely a really big key. Also, just hitting the ball. As simple as that sounds, it really helps getting on base.”
Question: Which do you prefer, pizza or wings?
Answer: “Pizza, easy. It’s way better than wings.”
Question: What animal do you think is the most breathtaking?
Answer: “I know this may sound a little cheesy, but a lion is very good. That’s our school mascot, so it’s pretty fitting.”
Question: You were on the state championship team last year as a freshman, what’s your favorite part about Dell Diamond?
Answer: “The environment. You walk onto the field and it’s like nothing else. It’s just breathtaking. The people there, they’re astounding. Everyone’s so loud, cheering, and it’s like nothing else to play on a minor league field. It’s just crazy.”
Question: What’s a TV show that you watch the most?
Answer: “I don’t really have a TV show I watch the most, but when I do watch TV, I’d probably watch a lot of the news, watch a lot of cartoons sometimes, and a lot of reality TV shows.”
Question: If you had the money to go out and buy one thing, what would it be and why?
Answer: “I would probably go buy some property. A lot of it. As much as I can get. Property has a lot more value as time goes on and it gets a lot more expensive as it goes, so that’s probably what I’d buy.”
Question: What other sports are you good at besides baseball?
Answer: “I play basketball and I do discus and shot put in track here. I qualified for regionals in discus and I was a starter on varsity for the basketball team this year.”
Question: If you could have dinner with two people of your choice, who would they be?
Answer: “One would probably be one of the past presidents. Probably John F. Kennedy. That’d probably be the first one. The second one would probably be Alex Bregman. I think it’s just kind of a different variety of people that I could learn a lot from just talking to them.”
Question: How does last year’s team compare or differ from this year’s?
Answer: “I would say this year, we are definitely a little stronger. Last year, we had a really good team. We all worked really well together and we were overall pretty good as state champions. This year, I think we definitely have a pretty good shot. We got to just keep putting the work in to make sure we can actually get there.”
Mau’s experience as a former champion just one year ago gives his current team a nice boost to repeat for the state crown.