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Senior Casey Janssen has had an outstanding season, leading the UCLA baseball team to a winning r

Casey Janssen has been a hit since he first stepped on the field in a Bruin uniform.

That UCLA’s star pitcher was such an immediate success isn’t surprising. The manner in which he became it is.

In 2001 against Hawai’i, in the very first time coach Gary Adams called on him, Janssen responded in a big way.

“It was raining. We had a pretty good lead, and coach was clearing the bench,” Janssen recalls. “I was the last guy to get in the game. I got a fastball, and it was my first swing. I just connected, and it went over the fence.”

Janssen’s home run in his first ever college at-bat seemed to foretell a career anchored in the middle of the Bruin lineup.

That never transpired. But the Bruins are certainly satisfied with the way things worked out.

In a season when the Bruins were picked to finish seventh in the Pac-10, Janssen has been the difference between that team and the team today, which is tied for third and jockeying to make the playoffs for the first time since 2000.

His numbers are outstanding: 7-2 record, 3.04 ERA, 74 innings, 70 strikeouts, .196 opponents batting average, all of which are top-five in the Pac-10. Still, his emergence has meant more than stats for the Bruins.

“Every time he’s on the mound, we think we’re going to get a win. He brings a different confidence to this team,” shortstop Ryan McCarthy said.

The senior starter has stabilized a staff plagued by inconsistency last year. No. 1 pitchers are vital in college as they start the first game of each weekend series against the other team’s ace. Having a clear-cut leader relieves the urgency from the rest of the staff.

“The big part of having the so-called ace of a staff is that everyone can work off of him – the starting pitchers, relievers, the coaching staff,” pitching coach Tim Leary said.

“He sets the tone for the weekend and sets a great example for the other pitchers.”

From the beginning of the year, Janssen was thrown into the role of ace almost by default. Not that his junior campaign was terrible – he was 6-6 with a 5.88 ERA – but certainly few could have envisioned such a leap forward.

“Pitching last year was frustrating, knowing that I was better than I showed,” he said.

Janssen showed how good his senior year would be from the very beginning. He opened the season with 16 scoreless innings and had a 0.75 ERA with 35 strikeouts through 24 innings.

All year he has only suffered two bad outings – back-to-back against Stanford and USC – and in each he was victimized by a six-run inning. Subtract those two innings, and you’ll see his year has been nearly flawless.

“He’s working hard every day,” McCarthy said. “This year, the biggest thing is that he pitches like he really wants it.”

“Every pitch he has has improved,” fellow starter Bryan Beck added. “This is the Casey everyone was waiting to see last year. Everyone knew he had it in him.”

Scouts, however, did not expect Janssen’s ascension. He was chosen in the second-to-last round of Major League Baseball’s June Amateur Draft. Well over a thousand players were picked before him.

“I was really humbled last year. I expected to go a lot higher,” Janssen said. “Now I have the attitude to stick it to anybody who doubted me.”

Janssen’s success has been a win-win situation for the Bruins and himself. Undoubtedly, his stellar senior campaign has caught the attention of the many scouts who overlooked him last year, and there will be no repeat of last year’s draft.

“He’s going to be a good sign for some pro team,” Leary said. “He has four very good pitches – a fastball, slider, curveball and changeup – and three of them he can strike you out with.”

But before he is vindicated in the coming June draft, Janssen will be counted on to continue his performance through the last month of this season.

And if the Bruins would like to extend the season into June and send Adams off with a playoffs farewell, they will need Janssen to be on top of his game, starting Friday against USC.

“We definitely want to give (Adams) a great last year,” Janssen said. “But it’s also a chance for me and everyone on this team to make the playoffs for the first time.”