Don’t call him Ace

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff UCLA baseball’s new
number one pitcher, Chris Cordeiro attempts to
bring the Bruins victory.

By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Staff

If Chris Cordeiro is supposed to be feeling the pressure of
taking over for first-round draft pick Josh Karp as UCLA’s
Friday night starter, somebody should probably tell him so.

He’s certainly not showing any of the signs of it.

“I don’t like being known as “˜the
ace,'” the sophomore pitcher said. “I’m
just a pitcher that throws on a certain day.”

Of course, Friday isn’t just any other day in college
baseball, as much as Cordeiro may try and make it out to be. The
Friday night pitching matchup most often pits the two best starters
from teams engaging in a three-game weekend series.

If there’s such a thing as an ace on a college baseball
team, he pitches on Friday night, which makes Cordeiro’s
ascension to the spot all the more interesting.

He was probably the least likely candidate among a bevy of young
pitchers to take over for Karp, who was drafted by the Montreal
Expos with the sixth pick after a dominating three-year career.

Cordeiro struggled through a paltry 15 and one-third innings in
2001, the fewest among pitchers.

“Chris came in highly recruited and with high
expectations, and in retrospect it was probably a disappointing
year for him,” pitching coach Gary Adcock said.

Although he put in some solid performances out of the bullpen
late in the season, one need only look at Cordeiro’s first
collegiate outing to get a taste for what his freshman season as a
whole did for his once beaming confidence.

In the team’s first three-game series, Cordeiro relieved
senior Paul Diaz, inheriting a pair of runners. He surrendered two
runs and was saddled with the 9-8 loss to Hawaii.

Accustomed to having his way with high-school hitters, Cordeiro
didn’t know what to think after losing his team’s lead
late in the game. It wasn’t exactly the debut he had
envisioned.

The veteran Diaz, who was Cordeiro’s roommate for the
trip, saw what the loss had done to the freshman. He invited him to
dinner at TGIFriday’s ““ both Cordeiro and Diaz remember
the details fondly ““ and tried to put things in
perspective.

“In high school, you give up a home run once in a blue
moon,” Diaz said. “I told him you can’t get down
on yourself as a pitcher in college.”

Cordeiro took Diaz’s words of advice to heart, but the
tone for his season had been set. In just one year, all of a sudden
nothing was guaranteed, and he began to wallow in his own
misfortune.

“I didn’t get to travel with the team a few times
and I was depressed,” he said. “I said to myself I can
take one of two roads. I can sulk and be a baby about it, or I can
work hard over the summer and get better. I decided I wasn’t
going to waste time feeling sorry for myself.”

Cordeiro couldn’t have picked a better time for an
attitude adjustment. UCLA lost all three of its weekend starters,
meaning all three spots were open for the taking. Adcock made it
clear shortly after the 2001 season that every pitcher on the staff
had a shot at the spots ““ even those, like Cordeiro, who had
yet to show him much in the way of actual game performance.

“Chris would have been a long shot at the end of last
season to become the number one guy,” head coach Gary Adams
said. “But based upon his performance in the fall and ever
since, he’s earned this. It’s not something we’ve
handed him.”

As hard as the freshman tribulations had been on Cordeiro, each
setback or frustrating outing only made him understand the level of
intensity and focus required for success at this next level. He
knows that there are plenty of perfectly capable and similarly
driven young pitchers behind him ready to step in should he
falter.

He’s “the guy,” but only as long as he plays
like “the guy.”

And just as no other UCLA basketball coach will be John Wooden,
it’s unlikely that any of this season’s UCLA starters
will be Josh Karp. Cordeiro knows this.

“Those are some big shoes to fill, and if I could ever get
to his level, I’d love it,” Cordeiro said. “But
I’m an unproven Pac-10 pitcher, so I like staying grounded
and humble.”

His lack of success last season has probably been one of the
biggest factors in keeping him grounded. Cordeiro started for the
Bruins a week ago in the season opener at UC Irvine, striking out
four of the Anteaters’ first six hitters. But he balked in a
run and threw a wild pitch that led to another, and left the game
with UCLA tied 3-3.

The no-decision was frustrating, but Cordeiro knows not to get
too upset ““ or too content.

He also doesn’t expect to see too many radar guns pointing
at him on Friday nights, like Karp used to. That doesn’t
bother him though. He’s happier pitching alongside a staff
that has only three draft eligible pitchers and a world of
experience to gain than basking in the glory of being the Friday
night starter.

After all, he remembers that night in Hawaii.

And if a freshman pitcher has a rough first night out on the
mound, he’ll know who to ask for a free dinner and some words
of encouragement ““ the unexpected, unassuming Friday night
guy.