Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Roland Impressing Out of Wake Forest Bullpen
4/6/2023 8:03:00 AM | Baseball
In 12 games this season for the Demon Deacons, Roland has pitched 14.0 innings, striking out an incredible 26 batters. He allowed just eight walks, five hits and three runs. He gives a lot of credit for his performance to the entire staff around him.
Nursing a three-run lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning in the rubber game of the first ACC series of the season, probably the last thing Wake Forest coach Tom Walter wanted to see was the first two Blue Devils given free passes — with eight of the nine pitches they saw out of the strike zone.
But he immediately turned the ball over to Dartmouth grad transfer Cole Roland, part of a demonstrative duo of pitchers the Demon Deacons are relying on to close out games this season.
Strikeout. Fielder's choice. Groundout.
Seven pitches later, Roland and the Deacs were out of the frame, as they held onto a 5-3 victory at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, claiming the series.
"Cole Roland was huge," Walter said. "He came in and threw nothing but strikes. What Cole Roland did today was the difference in the game."
Walter asked Roland how he was feeling when he got to the dugout after the seventh.
"Give me the eighth," Roland responded.
"That felt great and gives you some momentum going into the second inning," Roland said. "Once I found little bit of a rhythm, it's easy to come back out and keep going."
With his seventh-inning efficiency, Roland was easily capable of returning for the eighth, where two Blue Devils went down on strikes sandwiched around a soft-contact groundout right back to Roland. He relied heavily on his changeup and slider to keep Duke hitters off balance.
"I didn't use many fastballs at all today — maybe one," Roland said. "That's what I have the most comfort with, is my changeup and curve ball, so I just rolled with that."
Wake Forest closer Camden Minacci got the job done in the ninth as the Deacs claimed the series in Durham.
"Honestly, I just want to get right to Cam," Roland said. "I just wanted to get through those couple innings, get as many outs as we can and then get the ball to Cam. I know he will always do his job at the end of the game. I just wanted to pick up everyone who threw before me.
"After coming off the loss to Coastal, we really wanted that Friday night win. Duke hit the ball and played a good game. After we got punched, we wanted to punch back. We started strong with some hits and Hartle pitched great."
In a collegiate career full of starts and stops, Roland is getting it all together this season at Wake Forest. He suffered a season-ending injury as a freshman in 2019, didn't appear in the seven games played by Dartmouth before the 2020 campaign was shut down and then the 2021 Ivy League season was completely canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He got in the mix last season for the Big Green before transferring to Wake Forest for this season. In 12 games this season for the Demon Deacons, Roland has pitched 14.0 innings, striking out an incredible 26 batters. He allowed just eight walks, five hits and three runs. He gives a lot of credit for his performance to the entire staff around him.
"Everyone has a lot of faith in our starters, as they should, because they're all very good pitchers," Roland said. "Once they do their job, it makes it that much easier on us coming out of the pen."
