GRANVILLE – His WVU teammates may get a handshake or sometimes a hi-five out of Chansen Cole from time to time.
Don’t expect much more than that, at least not when the sophomore is busy on the mound.
“I’ve been told my whole life I’m a pretty boring person,” Cole said Friday, after he picked up his second NCAA tournament victory this season for the Mountaineers, who are now one victory shy of advancing to the College World Series following their 12-2 win over Cal Poly.
On a day when the Mountaineers (44-15) matched a program high for wins, Cole set the bar pretty high for himself, as well.
The sophomore went seven innings and threw 121 pitches. He scattered eight hits and allowed two runs, while striking out a season-high 11 would-be hitters. All of it came with a strong poker face on the mound from Cole.
There was no burst of emotion, as he struck out six consecutive hitters at one point. After giving up a solo home run to Cal Poly’s Dylan Kordic in the fourth inning, Cole simply went back to work and struck out three of the next five batters.
“You just trust the routine you have and you trust all the work and preparation you’ve done,” Cole said. “I’ve played this game my whole life. The plate is still 60 feet, six inches away and the bases are 90 feet away. It’s the same game I’ve played my whole life.”
The Mountaineers earned the program’s first victory in the super-regional round of the NCAA tournament. They did so in front of an enthusiastic sell-out crowd of 4,564, which included ESPN TV personality and former WVU kicker Pat McAfee.
There may have been another 2,000 WVU fans camped up on the hill outside of the stadium. All of them witnessed school history provided by Cole and a WVU offense that cranked out 14 hits and batted .313 with runners in scoring position.
Yet Cole just remained his steady self through all of the celebration and chaos.
“He’s boring in the most beautiful way,” was the way WVU head coach Steve Sabins described Cole. “It’s one of those things where you don’t get to pick your poison. You can be exciting and burn it at both ends, but then those probably aren’t the guys who get the ball on a Friday and go seven (innings) and keep having heroic performances.
“Choose your boring. He’s decided that he’s going to go to bed on time and take care of his body and be a great teammate; he’s boring in those kinds of ways. But, you know, pitching all season and collecting wins and getting us to super regionals, that isn’t boring.”
Cole improved to 10-1 on the season. He hasn’t been charged with a defeat since April 5. Since then, his run of impressive starts is piling one on top of the other.
He was part of the incredible sweep of Kansas, when the Mountaineers were chasing the Jayhawks for the Big 12 regular-season title.
There was a win against TCU to end the season, another one against Arizona State in the Big 12 tournament, which may have set up WVU to be a host in the NCAA regional round to begin with.
In the NCAA tournament, Cole shut down Binghamton to open the regional and came on in relief against Kentucky on Monday, the 6-5 win that sent the Mountaineers to the super regionals.
In his three appearances, Cole has collected 23 strikeouts.
“He just did a really good job of painting strikes at the bottom of the zone,” Kordic said. “We knew he was going to win down there. Our goal was to eliminate that and get him to throw up in the zone. He was attacking there early and made us expand, because we needed to put the ball in play and make things happen. He was good today. He did his job.”
Cal Poly coach Larry Lee was certainly impressed, too.
“He just mixes and he’s a solid college pitcher,” Lee said. “He’s not high velocity and he lives down in the zone. His pitches were good. Guys like that win. Looking at him on video, I thought we might have some troubles.”
