Linn-Benton baseball is at a key transition point in their season. Players and coaches alike are gearing up for a postseason run with hopes of collecting a third consecutive NWAC title. Amongst them is Cooper Yudishthu. Cool, confident and filled with creative drive, the freshman finished as the statistical top starting pitcher in the 2026 regular season for the Roadrunners.
Sadly, in what was supposed to be his second-to-last start of the season, Yudishthu suffered a UCL tear while working in the fifth inning of LB’s April 29 victory over Lane. Regardless, Yudishthu has kept pushing – going through the motions of starting the long road of recovery whilst cheering on his teammates as they prepare to play the most important baseball of their lives.
It remains to be seen if Yudishthu will need to get Tommy John surgery, but regardless, the recovery from a UCL tear is a personal battle all too common for pitchers, marked with months of frustration and struggle. Former MLB pitcher Michael Kopech once said of UCL injury recovery in an interview with MLB.com “honestly, it makes you feel worse and worse as the days go on”.
The Grant High School graduate still finished his freshman season with a 5-0 record in nine starts, pitching to a 2.58 ERA and a WHIP of 1.10.
I sat down with Yudishthu to discuss his season, his injury and to get to know him a bit better as an individual.
How long have you been playing baseball and at what age did you start to take pitching ‘seriously’?
As long as I can remember. My dad always coached me, and my older brother who’s five years older than me always played. My dad coached me all the way from T-Ball until eighth grade. I’d say that I really started taking pitching seriously around middle school, that was when I realized like ‘okay, that’s my spot’. That’s where I have the most fun. It was always kind of a balance, hitting, playing in the field and pitching and then in my junior year I fractured two vertebrae in my back snowboarding and that made me realize I kind of needed to pick my battles. So, from that point on I became a full time pitcher.
How did you get recruited and end up at LB?
It’s actually a pretty wild story. I didn’t try to get recruited at all, I was dead set on not playing baseball after high school. I applied to maybe twelve different schools, like 90% of those were little art schools just in different cities throughout the country. I was set on doing art and design stuff. But then I met with some of the most important baseball people in my life, coaches and family friends who had been around the game for a long time. All of them gave me some really interesting perspective and thought that I could go on to play somewhere at the next level.
I mean, I had my deposit down to go to California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and then around the end of July when I really thought through it I was like ‘I’m going to regret it if I don’t try’, so I went for it. I had like a month beforehand, ended up at LB, raced to get a place and a roommate and here I am.
What are your interests off the diamond?
I have a lot. Baseball is a pretty big mental game, you’ve got to have your escapes. I’d say I’ve definetly been slacking on my creative things. I haven’t been making as much art lately. In the fall I was real big on just going out, watching the sunset and drawing in my sketchbook. I DJ every now and then, mostly just by myself. Right now I’ve been going on some fat bike rides especially when I go back home to Portland, last time I went on like an 18-mile ride and that was pretty sick.
How’d you get into DJing? That’s an interesting hobby.
I have to give credit for a lot of my love of music to my brother. There were three albums specifically I remember him putting me on to, “DAMN” by Kendrick Lamar, this is about to make me sound really young, but “DAMN”, “Big Fish Theory” by Vince Staples and “Flower Boy” by Tyler, The Creator. He put me on to those and then he kept putting me on, and eventually I kept searching and finding stuff on my own and that’s when I really got in the realm of music stuff.
Then I started band in fifth grade. I played trumpet and trombone in a jazz band from sixth to eighth grade. I played a little my freshman year but mostly because my mom made me. It was kind of intense and just burnt me out. I was glad I tried it out but it eventually kind of phased out. My favorite part about playing jazz was the aspect of performing, like that feeling you get when you get a reaction out of people you’re performing for, that just hits different. I really missed that, and DJing sounded sick. I listen to such much music and I collect records and CDs and so I just wanted to put that knowledge somewhere.
Summer before my junior year I bought a DJ deck, taught myself with some YouTube videos and kind of just figured it out. That fall I DJed a few house parties and since then I’ve done some more real gigs. I did a fashion show at the Portland Fashion Institute, that was sick. I have one coming up this summer at the Portland Art Museum, another fashion show, but I don’t know for sure what’s going to happen with that because obviously I might have to get elbow surgery. But yeah, I missed that feeling of performing and DJing really scratched that itch.
Back to baseball, you added a two-seam fastball to your arsenal before this season, how important was having a healthy mix of pitches to keep batters off balance this year?
Huge. Right before the injury, my last outing I was cruising, I had only allowed two hits. I figured out my change up in the bye week just before that so I had five working pitches (four-seam, two-seam, curveball, slider, changeup). And, honestly I had never felt that good on the mound before. It’s a game changer, it just becomes a total guessing game for hitters. If you have five good pitches that you can land for strikes, they’re screwed, nothing they can do. Having that healthy mix was huge.
You hear some guys talk about some days certain pitches are better than others and while that’s definitely true, throughout this season I felt like I had mostly all my pitches except that change up, which I was beginning to figure out until unfortunate circumstances.
Just how devastating of a turn was that? Going from “the best you’d ever felt” to season over in an instant.
It was heartbreaking. I was just in shock. Playing LCC was a huge series, and our game one starter Lane Simonsen had pitched like the most insane game ever, he went like 8 innings and I just wanted to back that up and shove. I felt great that day, I was doing my thing out there and then one curveball I felt a pop in my elbow. I threw a couple more pitches and I was just like ‘yeah, something happened’.
So, I came out, I was still in shock but just tried my best to back my guys up the rest of the game. It was definitely brutal, I had a whole summer lined up with a summer ball team and it just felt like right when things were starting to go my way that happened. But, I’ve been taking it day by day, the team’s been there for me. I’m just hyped to go get after it at NWACs, be the loudest guy in the dugout and watch us win a chip.
How would you describe the general vibes among the team heading into the playoffs?
I mean, this is what our eyes were set on from day one. We all know what this program is trying to do and what the standard is. Like, winning the South, that to us was not even close to the end goal, it was expected. It’s a long road ahead to win the championship but this group is prepared and we’re ready to be continuously preparing until it happens.
Tell me a little bit about the relationship this team has. How important is this team’s close knit bond to your guys' successes?
Chemistry is an important aspect of any team. We’re hanging out outside of practice, getting together on our own and just having fun. You just have to spend time as a team and bond outside of baseball, because it’s going to transfer on to the field. Showing up on day one obviously was a bit of an adjustment period for everyone. The biggest difference between now and the fall is just the comfortability, knowing you have friends and that everyone’s backing each other up.
We’ve talked a few times about how high of a standard you hold your preparation to, tell me a little about how you get ready for a game physically and mentally?
Something I’ve been really big on since high school is visualization. The night before the game I’m laying in my bed right before I sleep, turn the light off, close my eyes and just imagine every single one of my pitches and every spot of me throwing them in game. I know this sounds weird, but I try my best to picture myself in the shoes I’m going to be in the next day: walking on the mound to start the game, throwing different pitches in different spots at different point in the game, striking a guy out, walking around the mound after I strike the guy out, everything. Visualizing has definitely been a huge aid.
When I wake up the morning of a game I eat a good breakfast and do yoga for 20 to 30 minutes. Pregame meal: Jersey Mikes sandwich, every single time, the boys on the team know I always have that Jersey Mike’s on me. Bang out the sandwich with some honey barbeque Fritos during the first game, because I always started game twos. Then I stretch, start throwing, bang out a Red Bull and a banana and we do our thing.
I know you aren’t the type to dwell on results, but how did this season compare to your expectations coming in?
Well, I don’t get to pitch at NWACs, and that was kind of the whole goal I’ve been working towards. Of course I’ve taken it one game at a time, every game mattered and I really felt like I got to contribute to the team. But yeah, not getting to pitch in the playoffs is a huge bummer, but it’s not something I’m going to dwell on. The thing that sucks most about the injury but also makes it easy to move on from is that I was doing everything I could to stay healthy. Every single day I was in the weight room doing arm care after practice. I was going the extra mile, doing yoga and stretching every morning.
It was just kind of a freak accident, there’s not much I could have done to prevent it. It’s definitely something that obviously was not reaching my expectations. But, I really try not to live on expectations and stuff, I just do everything I can and control the controllable.
What was the biggest thing this season taught you?
Honestly just what having a mass of people working towards one goal can accomplish. Compared to high school, it’s a different environment for sure. Obviously, you care about winning in high school, it depends where you’re at but usually it’s only like half the team that is working super hard and really wants it. It was crazy showing up here and going in the weight room every day and every single guy is getting after it, not one guy slacking. It’s just crazy seeing what’s possible if everyone commits to one thing. With so much strength and so much power, a lot of stuff can happen. It goes past sports, you see it everywhere in the world, if you have a big group of people all working towards one thing, it can be pretty powerful.
At a Glance:
Cooper Yudishthu
Occupation: Pitcher and student at LB
Major: Associate of Art Oregon Transfer with a focus in arts
Age: 19
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Before LBCC: Played high school baseball for Grant High School in Portland
Other Interests: Music, art, DJing, Jersey Mike’s
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