Cooper Hjerpe pulled up his right knee and coiled it into his chest as he rocked back. He flung his hip forward swinging his leg and stepping halfway down the mound. The Oregon State third-year sophomore pushed off from the first base side of the rubber and began to open up his shoulders. The baseball, hidden to the batter until that point, came streaking out of his left hand from a three-eighths slot in a cross-fire action. It appeared to be starting behind the back of Stanford lefthanded leadoff hitter Brock Jones before crossing over the plane and rising through the zone.
The pitch was designed to be down and in to Jones. Instead, Jones swung through a high fastball that rode in on his hands. Hjerpe had failed to execute the pitch to perfection and still had struck out a preseason All-American. That gave him confidence in his stuff and when he knew it was going to be a good day.
“My heater was moving a lot more that day,” Hjerpe said. “I was getting swings and misses on heaters that were not in the zone. When you don’t execute and still get strikes, it gives you a lot of confidence.”
Pitching with confidence, a moving fastball and two off-speed offerings he refined over the offseason, Hjerpe produced perhaps college baseball’s finest start this season. He tied a school record with 17 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings, striking out the side in each of his final three frames. He allowed only two hits and one walk.
“Every time he’s on the mound, you expect a dominant performance and that’s kind of what we’ve seen all year from him,” said Oregon State outfielder Jacob Melton, who like Hjerpe was on the Golden Spikes Award midseason watch list. “It’s exciting for everybody in the ballpark to see him go out and compete. I mean the guy is probably the best collegiate arm that I’ve ever seen in person. He’s just dominant.”
Hjerpe didn’t dominate in the same fashion a week later, but his tone-setting performance in a 9-1 win Friday at USC was just as impressive. As he handed the ball over and exited in the seventh inning, the outfielders, including Melton, convened in center field and agreed Hjerpe hadn’t had his “A stuff.” The lefthander didn’t have all three of his pitches locked in the same as a week prior. But Melton glanced over to the scoreboard and noted the Trojans had six zeros beside their name and had managed only four hits.
Hjerpe struck out nine and allowed four singles on a night he didn’t have his best stuff. He pitched out of jams in the first and sixth inning and retired 13 straight in between. He exited with a 4-0 lead that ballooned into a 9-1 Oregon State victory, earning Hjerpe his seventh win of the season, tied for most in the nation.
It was a victory Hjerpe likely wouldn’t have picked up a season prior. Five times during the 2021 season he pitched at least six innings with one run or fewer allowed. All five times he failed to go five innings in his following start, giving up 23 combined runs in 16.1 innings.
“Last year if I didn’t have my ace stuff, you didn’t know what you were going to get out of me. I was pretty streaky,” Hjerpe said. “That’s something I worked on in the offseason. I needed to be more consistent because you have to be able to play with your B game. You’re not always going to have your best stuff.”
Hjerpe has been mostly dominant this season, compiling a 1.70 ERA in eight starts, but even when one pitch isn’t lights out for an appearance, he’s still able to give the Beavers a solid start.
Against USC, Oregon State’s offense provided some early run support, scoring a run in the first inning and three runs in the second. That was more than enough with Hjerpe on the mound. He threw one ball in the first inning and went to a two-ball count on only six of the 24 batters he faced. Five of those at-bats resulted in strikeouts, including the only two times he went to a three-ball count. Hjerpe threw 71 percent of his 91 pitches for strikes.
“When we faced him last year, he didn’t have the same command,” USC head coach Jason Gill said. “It’s tough enough to sit on his fastball coming around the corner in the low 90s from that low arm slot. I thought he kept us off balance. He was throwing the breaking ball in backwards counts at times. I thought he pitched really well.”
"When he had to get out of whatever [jam] he was in, he got out of it. That's a sign of a really good pitcher and that's what he is. That's why there were 30 teams here to see him tonight," Gill said referencing the bevy of MLB scouting personnel in attendance.
What makes Hjerpe tough to hit?
“Everything,” said Melton (.369, 9, 44), having routinely faced off in a marquee left-on-left matchup in intrasquad scrimmages and live batting practice. “Low-slot guy. Spins it pretty well. I mean his slider feels like it’s starting a foot behind you as a lefty and he backs that up with a really good changeup that he can throw to lefts and rights.”
Hjerpe attacks hitters from an unfamiliar angle while hiding the ball well. He gets more than seven feet of extension, which plays up his fastball that has reportedly been as firm as 96 or 97 mph. It sat 89-92, topping out at 93 mph in his start at USC, but his extension makes 92 or 93 feel more like 95 or 96 to the batter. Hitters struggle to pick the ball up and by the time they do, Hjerpe’s high-revolution pitches are already getting on them.
“Getting on time with the fastball is half the battle, but as soon as he sees you do it once, then he’s going to land offspeed that is plus offspeed,” Melton said. “Live ABs in the fall and the winter off of him are not comfortable. I can tell you that all of us count it as a win if you put the ball in play off him. He’s just a dominant arm, man.”
Hjerpe has 77 strikeouts in 47.2 innings, three shy of the national leaders. He is also top 25 nationally in ERA, WHIP (0.86) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.7) after his six scoreless innings Friday night. Opponents are hitting .180 against the 6-foot-3 lefty from Woodland High in Capay, Calif.
“He’s a student of the game and really his work ethic is second to none,” Oregon State head coach Mitch Canham said. “He’ll sit out there during batting practice and spin breaking balls over and over and over just getting the feel for it, playing catch with his changeup. He’s always playing catch and working on his stuff, so it’s just comfortable when he’s out there.
“He makes quick adjustments just recognizing what came out of his hand. He’s really good about learning what just happened, building a plan, controlling his body and then committing to it when it comes out of his hand, so it’s just really fun to watch.”
Hjerpe has taken a huge step forward this season after showing flashes of his potential his first two seasons. He struck out 98 in 77 innings over 17 appearances (16 starts) last year but faded in the second half of the season. Hjerpe had a 2.05 ERA and hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his first nine starts. He pitched at least 4.2 innings in eight of those nine starts. He lasted more than 4.1 innings only twice in his final eight appearances and gave up 31 runs in 28.2 innings.
That fueled an offseason for “a guy that hates to fail at anything,” per Melton.
Hjerpe went to Driveline Baseball in Washington to work on refining his secondary pitches. He developed a crisp 77-79 slider that he is comfortable throwing to lefties and righties over the loopier, sweeping curveball he had last season that was reserved more for left-handed hitters. He can start the slider behind a left-handed batter and snap it over the inside corner, use it back door against righties for called strikes. Hjerpe can also start it in the middle of the plate and break it down and in to righties or to get lefties flailing on the gloveside offering.
He also worked to improve his best pitch, watching his 80-82 mph changeup in slow motion to learn how to get more consistency from the pitch. The improved and more consistent secondary offerings have enabled Hjerpe to put hitters away quicker, whether that be via strikeout or a ball put in play.
“Last year, he was unable to get deep into the game because he didn’t have his secondary stuff,” Canham said. “Guys were fouling stuff off and he was working deep into every count. Now we’re seeing him with a lot more three, four pitch at-bats as opposed to five, six, seven. When a guy does that on Friday, eliminating a lot of free bases, it sets the tone for the rest of the guys.”
Hjerpe’s effort against USC set the tone for a weekend where the Oregon State pitching staff did not allow a walk, becoming the first team this season to go three straight games without a walk. The Beavers held off late rally attempts for 3-2 and 7-3 wins in the final two games, earning the Beavers their first-ever sweep of USC in Los Angeles. They improved to 24-7 and are right back in the Pac-12 race at 10-5 after losing the Stanford series the week prior.
"Cooper's mentality, the guys feed off of it. They watch how he prepares," Canham said. "He's not an extremely vocal guy, but his actions and his attitude speak way louder than you can ever do with your voice. I think the guys really feed off of him."
Hjerpe’s ability to go deep in games and set the tone for the weekend has been especially important for the Beavers with expected weekend rotation arms Jake Pfennigs and Will Frisch both injured and Frisch out for the season. Hjerpe has shortened the weekend for Canham, pitching at least five innings in every start. He lasted five innings in only half his 2021 starts and just twice had back-to-back starts of five or more innings.
“That sets us up nicely for the next couple of games," Canham said. "Being able to get that deep into the game multiple weeks in a row, it allows the guys to be fresh and go put out their best stuff Friday, Saturday, Sunday whenever their names are called."
