Oregon Pitching Staff Thrives Under Jason Dietrich’s Guidance

EUGENE, Ore.—Sometimes you’ve just got to go for it.

That’s what Oregon pitching coach Jason Dietrich was thinking in the ninth inning on a frigid night on March 25. The score was 1-0, Ducks, over Pacific-12 Conference foe Washington. There was one out. Freshman closer Kenyon Yovan was on the mound—and he was in trouble.

Yovan’s electric right arm was a little too electric that night. He couldn’t locate. He walked two men—the tying and go-ahead runs—and was in danger of walking the bases loaded. With third baseman Willie MacIver at the plate and the count full, Yovan’s pitching coach decided to roll the dice. Dietrich, in his first year at Oregon, had told his pitchers from the get-go that he’d never be afraid to call for any pitch at any given time.

“As long as you have conviction, you commit to it and go for it,” he told them, “you’ll never hear me complain.”

This was one of those times. From the dugout, Dietrich signaled for Yovan to throw a 3-2 slider. That was a gutsy pitch selection with a one-run lead in the ninth, but Yovan executed the pitch to perfection, dotting the outside corner for a called strike three. The next batter flew out to left field. Game over. The Ducks took the contest and the series.

“I’m not second-guessing anything,” Dietrich said of the pitch call after the game. “(Yovan) knew it and he loved it, and he was like, ‘I’m glad you called it and we went for it.’

“And that’s what I’m trying to instill in them. I want the go-for-it mentality. I want finish mentality. I want guys to own the mound.”

In his past four years at Cal State Fullerton, and at UC Irvine before that, Dietrich, 44, has cultivated a reputation of being one of the finest pitch callers and pitching minds in the college game. His Titans led Division I with a 2.22 ERA last season.

He’s already made a quantifiable impact on the Oregon staff. Through 26 games, Oregon’s collective ERA stood at 3.33, compared to 3.74 last season. More impressively, the staff’s walks per nine have decreased from 3.59 last year to 2.27 this year—third best in the country. Strikeouts have ticked up, from 8.02 per nine to 9.27. Oregon’s strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.09 ranks second nationally.

That level of pitching has sparked an 18-8 start to the season for the Ducks, who went 29-26 and missed the NCAA Tournament last year.

“I think he’s the Pitcher Whisperer,” joked head coach George Horton, who pried Dietrich from Fullerton in the offseason. “He’s got a special something to him. He doesn’t have a big ego, he’s not a top-step guy, he doesn’t like to bring a lot of attention to himself, kind of a grinder.

“What drew me to him was the kind of person he is and the approach to that. It isn’t like, ‘Hey, look at me, I’m this brilliant pitching coach.’ He blends in. He’s a good staff member, and he’s really humble, but the way he does it is unbelievable attention to detail and tenacity with the pitchers and just is on them all the time about their mechanics.”

Horton points to ace lefthander David Peterson’s growth in his junior year as a prime example of Dietrich’s influence.
Peterson has long possessed premium stuff, but in the past two seasons, he went 8-11, 4.03, while walking 3.51 per nine and striking out 8.17.

This season, through his first seven starts, Peterson was 6-1, 2.14. In 46.1 innings, he’d struck out 66 batters and walked four. Never known as a high-command pitcher, Peterson ranked 11th nationally with 0.78 walks per nine. His strikeout-to-walk ratio of 16.50 ranked third.

“He’s challenged us since the first day he got here,” Peterson said. “And it’s always been about focusing on what you’re doing and being mentally tougher than who you’re going against. And I think that’s really been a huge difference . . . I think it’s just a different way of working that I’m doing this year compared to the last two years. Command hasn’t been my strong suit, but I think the mentality piece that he brings to it—he challenges us every day with mentality.”

Under Dietrich’s guidance, Peterson has refined his changeup and turned it into a more effective weapon. Primarily a two-seam pitcher in the past, Peterson has mixed in more four-seamers at the advice of Dietrich, using it to steal strikes on both sides of the plate. The coach and his ace have retooled his mechanics, improving his direction toward the plate, getting the lefthander to finish over his front side instead of falling off or leaking, and keeping his nose pointed toward the catcher’s glove.

While those tweaks have been helpful, the mental guidance has been just as imperative. Peterson struggled in his first start of the year, allowing five runs on eight hits against Fresno State. But he’s gone on a magical run since then, including a 17-strikeout, no-walk outing against Mississippi State on March 3.

“The first outing was shaky,” Dietrich said. “But I go, ‘Let’s take results out of the equation. Just compete and see where you’re at and we’ll evaluate every outing and break it down and keep grinding.’ And that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Dietrich preaches simplicity. His philosophy is less scientific and more about mindset—attacking, throwing strikes, competing, repeating.

“He’s great,” righthander Matt Mercer said. “Since my junior year of high school, I’ve been working at Driveline Baseball, which kind of teaches velocity with use of weighted balls. So kind of my mentality up until now was throw as hard as you can and miss barrels, and Dietrich is more ‘throw strikes.’ And I think it’s a great medium.”

Mercer is among the pitchers who have shown growth, going 4-1, 1.76 in his first seven starts after going 2-2, 4.28 as a freshman. Horton also pointed to relievers Connor Zwetsch and Cooper Stiles as pitchers who have made progress under Dietrich’s brief tutelage.

“He’s taken the staff and is molding it into a pretty spectacular piece of artwork right now,” Horton said.
Dietrich is a little more humble about it.

“The great thing Coach Horton said to me is, ‘I hired you for a reason. I want you to come over and take over this staff,’” Dietrich said. “But I have the luxury, and I’m very selfish and lucky, that I have him as a person to go talk to about things I’m seeing, questions I have about pitching, because his mind is off the charts. So I feel like I’m always the one picking his brain.

“He’s like, ‘You do what you do. I want you to take complete ownership of it.’ And I’ve been thankful that he’s put that challenge upon my shoulders. That’s the stuff I love.”

The love is mutual.