After losing five out of his last six starts, UCLA junior pitcher Gerrit Cole picked a good time to turn things around.
Heading into Friday’s game against Arizona State, UCLA was tied with its opponent for second place in the Pac-10. Both the Bruins and the Sun Devils trailed league-leading Oregon State Beavers by a game.
Nine innings, 126 Cole pitches and 12 UCLA hits later, the Bruins secured a 10-3 win over the Sun Devils. The win coincided with an Oregon State loss to Oregon in Eugene, moving UCLA into a first-place tie.
The race to the finish continues tonight with UCLA junior pitcher Trevor Bauer taking on ASU at 6:30. Oregon and Oregon State face off at 2 p.m.
You can catch a live stream of the UCLA game here. In the meantime, I was able to catch up with Cole on the phone to discuss everything from Friday’s outing to UCLA’s chances at hosting a regional.
Daily Bruin: What was going right for you last night?:
Gerrit Cole: I think I really just wore them down. Honestly, I was making pitches early and they were dropping the barrel on it, but I understood that they were doing a good job with some pitches. I didn’t change my approach and I just kept making pitches and wearing them down throughout the night and just kept saying, “Here it comes. Here it comes. Here it comes.” We put pressure on them offensively, obviously, which was beautiful. We scuffled a little bit on defense here and there, but we made the plays when we needed to make the plays, which really helped us out.
DB: In recent starts, maybe you haven’t been at your sharpest and then the hitting wasn’t at the top of its game here and there, but last night, was everything just coming together like it should?
GC: Yeah. Everything was definitely coming together and everyone was firing on all cylinders. When that happens, they’re a dangerous offense. When they gang-tackle people and grind out at bat after at bat, they start getting mistakes in the latter bart of the inning and the latter part of the game because they just wear people down and then when that happens, they get those pitches down the heart of the plate that they start turning on and I think that was evident. They did a really good job last night.
DB: With your team being tied for first in the Pac-10 and needing some help from Oregon to win it outright, how aware are you of what’s going on in that series?
GC: We don’t worry about it right now; before the game, during the game, we don’t worry about that stuff. We have to devote so much attention to Arizona State. After the game, we were all definitely on our phones GameTracking it on the bus. I can tell you that. We were aware after the game, but during the game, before the game, you’re just too amped up about playing ASU.
DB: Let’s say you finish in a first-place tie with OSU owning the tiebreaker or you finish alone in first; does that change a lot? Or do you think you’re getting shipped out for a regional regardless?
GC: I think if we win it outright and we get the automatic bid, I think there’s a chance of hosting a regional. If we tie, we both win the Pac-10 but they will get the automatic bid and we will get credited with an at-large bid. It won’t be like a tiebreaker. In that situation, I think we’ll get shipped out. I think Fullerton is the most likely destination. That’s what I’ve been hearing.
DB: After such a phenomenal performance, throwing up 98 mph pitches in the eighth inning, you just have to sit back and watch tonight’s game. How fun is that for you to watch Trevor do his thing? What’s that like?
GC: You wish you could pitch every game, but obviously, that’s not the case. It’s going to be fun tonight. I’m really excited. It’s almost more important for me to have a good mindset in the dugout and help the team out as much as I can in the dugout, because we’ve got to keep everybody in tune with the game. Trevor’s going to go out and do his thing like he’s been doing all year, and that’s going to be fun to watch. We’re going to grind away at-bats like we did, and it’s definitely going to be fun. My job in there is to keep the dugout in the game and sometimes that’s a harder task than going out there and pitching, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.