Hayden’s Cooper Grace joins 13 Sports to talk commitment to Nebraska

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – On Aug. 8, Grace committed to the Cornhuskers for baseball. One of the best incoming seniors should have another impressive season.

Some of Grace’s stats include, 64.2 IP, 124 K’s and a 1.94 ERA with 244 career strikeouts. Hitting wise, he hit. 426 with three homeruns, 36 RBI and a .663 Slugging Percentage.

Grace said something that’s really helped him stay in shape is playing soccer and basketball for the Wildcats. But, he told 13 Sports, there’s an even bigger reason why he’s been able to sustain his success.

”My dad’s a physical therapist. He played baseball in college and a little bit in high school. He’s really built up my shoulder and my legs and he’s kept me healthy. I don’t have any problems. I’ve never really in pain. I’ve never had any major arm problems from throwing and I credit that a lot to my dad. He’s kind of built this up slowly but surely I’m not one of those guys that I was throwing 95 three years ago I was slowly climbing. Again, moderate velocity every single year and hopefully keeping that up.”

Grace is coming off that state championship in baseball this past season too. He told 13 Sports he’s someone who works hard, doesn’t let anyone beat him and family is big for him.

He knew Nebraska was the right choice in developing him as a player and as a man. Another big part he said is being able to hit as well.

Having his Dad in his corner, it’s been so beneficial.

“It’s great because I mean, obviously times have changed since when he was playing but now he’s one of those guys that has been through it. He understands looking back, he can see clearly what he did good and what he did wrong. Him laying it out for me, was perfect. He went this way because of this and I should go this way because I’m not like him in this way or I should do this because I am liking in that way. It’s nice to have somebody who watched me grow up and understands what I want maybe more than I know what I want and helping me make a decision. Even him being a physical therapist, he’s taught me how to take care of myself, take care of my arm, take care of my legs and become a beast,” he said with a smile.

When he looks back when his first started playing baseball, he always knew getting to the next level was something he wanted to achieve.

“It was always the dream. I mean, I realized it. I talked to my dad about it and how his experience in college baseball had affected him as a person. I’ve been watching Royals games, and then KU and K-State baseball games, all of them. I’ve been up there and watching them and I’m like, this is what I want to do from as long as I can remember. Playing baseball, it’s always to get to the next level, achieve the next level of competition and compete at the highest level and I’ve been given the chance to do that.”

He told 13 Sports he’s not looking too far ahead with his senior year coming up and he knows it will go by fast. The goal is to repeat but they know that’ll be a difficult task. But, with the majority of the team coming back next season, he believes they have a good shot.

Grace talked about what he and the team do before the game and that’s what brought them so close.

“One thing is, it doesn’t matter who I’m playing, doesn’t matter who’s in the box, I’m going to beat you. That’s all I’m thinking. As for pregame, I mean I do a lot of running and I pray. I think as a team that’s one of the things that made us so good is our chemistry. We all we all pray together, we’ll laugh together, we did everything together. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings on Thursday nights for BOGO and I mean we just did everything as a team. When you’re kind of in that environment with those guys, It’s gonna be tough to be beat. Before games, I mean we all really had one goal, to win no matter what. It didn’t matter who was pitching and who was hitting, we had 100 confidence in whoever was up in that moment and I just went out there and competed,” he said.

He plans on studying business and also have a focus in pre-med.

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