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Sports

UCLA Pitcher Gerrit Cole Signs with Pirates

The top draft picks agrees with Pittsburgh on an $8 million minor league contract.

Former UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole beat Major League Baseball's 12:01 a.m. Tuesday signing deadline by only 15 minutes, but the top pick in June's 2011 amateur baseball draft inked a minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates that includes an $8 million signing bonus.

The right-hander went 6-8 with a 3.31 earned run average in 16 starts as a junior for the Bruins in 2011, throwing four complete games and allowing one run or less seven times.

As a junior, Cole went 11-4 with a 3.37 ERA and had 153 strikeouts in 123 innings, ranking third in the nation in that category. The former prep standout at Orange Lutheran was selected 28th overall by the New York Yankees in 2008 but opted to go to UCLA instead.    

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Fellow Bruins right-hander Trevor Bauer, selected third overall in this year's amateur draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, agreed to a $4.45 million four-year major league contract with the club on July 25.

In three seasons at UCLA, Bauer set school career records in wins (34), strikeouts (460) and innings pitched (373.1). He was No. 1 in the country in strikeouts each of the last two years, with 165 in 2010 and 203 as a junior this past season. Bauer was a prep standout at Newhall Hart in Santa Clarita.

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Also on Monday, UCLA baseball coach John Savage announced Rex Peters as an assistant coach. Peters coached the last nine seasons at UC Davis, guiding the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament in 2008--the program's first in Division I. 

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