Thus far, the UCLA baseball team has had an impressive season.
Senior No. 1 starter Casey Janssen has also had an impressive
season. The two successes are very much related. The Bruins’
impressive 10-3 record is reflective of a solid all-around effort.
But still, Janssen’s effort stands as the most encouraging
sign of the early season. Last year, the Bruins’ staff
struggled in large part because it did not have an ace, a
team’s No. 1 pitcher, to confidently face the other
team’s No. 1 starter on Fridays. This year, it appears
Janssen (3-0) is filling that role nicely. “I’m trying
to lead by example, being the senior on the staff,” Janssen
said. “It’s been about having more total confidence,
believing in myself, and accomplishing each pitch.” So far,
his pitches have accomplished plenty. After 24 innings, he has a
remarkable 35 strikeouts while only allowing two earned runs for a
0.75 ERA. “I’ve been setting up hitters well with both
the offspeed pitches and the fastball,” Janssen said.
“When both are going well, then it’s easy to keep the
hitter off-balance.” Added coach Gary Adams, “This year
he has command of all his pitches.” That Janssen is having
such immediate success this year is surprising, given his mostly
mediocre junior season in which he went 6-6 with a 5.88 ERA in 72
innings. One point that has changed is his defined role as staff
ace. Another is the work of new pitching coach Tim Leary.
“(Leary) has worked with me on using the tilt of the mound to
drive off of and throwing downhill,” Janssen said. This
weekend, Janssen and the Bruins will be tested by UCLA’s
toughest opponent of the year, No. 14 Texas A&M (12-1), who is
riding a 10-game winning streak. “They’re a team that
beat us twice last year with the same positional players they have
now,” Adams said. “I understand they have some good
pitching prospects because all the scouts have been asking me
who’s pitching.” If there was such a thing as an
optimal time to face such a formidable opponent, it would certainly
be now, as the Bruins are in the middle of a six-game winning
streak that includes four blow-outs over Hawai’i-Hilo and a
dramatic extra-inning walk-off home run by catcher Chris Denove
against UCSB on Tuesday. “We’re definitely excited with
what we accomplished last week,” Janssen said.
“We’re not done, and this weekend is a big test. We
have confidence, but a quiet confidence.”
CYCLE: Hitting for the cycle requires some very
specific criteria ““ a single, double, triple and home run
““ so it was surprising that left fielder Matt Thayer did so
accidentally. “It was kind of a weird thing,” Thayer
said. “When I got the single in the 6th or 7th inning, I got
to first base, and the first base coach comes up to me and says
congratulations. I didn’t really realize what had
happened.”
ROTATIONS: The pitching rotation has Janssen
starting Friday, right-hander Bryan Beck (1-0) going Saturday and
lefty Wes Whisler (1-0) starting Sunday. The Aggies will counter
with RHP Robert Ray (1-0), RHP Justin Moore (1-0) and LHP Zach
Jackson (3-0).