As his arms lifted into the air and teammates surrounded him, Rocklin junior pitcher Andrew Hancock and his beloved Thunder finished off yet another masterpiece.
This time, though, it extended the season towards the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 2 quarterfinals. That was perhaps an afterthought at one point in March when Rocklin was 0-8-1, but it never lost faith because many of the games were close and against some top-ranked foes with plenty of experience.
Hancock embodies the Rocklin spirit. The unwavering belief. The swagger. The winning, too.
On Wednesday, he showed all of that – five shutout innings, just one hit allowed and six strikeouts.
“He’s a phenomenal pitcher,” said Rocklin head coach Matt Jones.
What’s different now is Hancock has a different role from his sophomore year in 2025, when Hancock burst onto the scene as a rising ace with a 6-0 record and 2.54 ERA for the back-to-back Sierra Foothill League champs while starting next to someone now at Arkansas and another playing junior college ball.
Hancock expected to open games again, but Rocklin broached him with an idea. How about have an opener? How about someone going through the lineup first, then you can shut things down from there?
At first, Hancock admitted some reluctance.
“Well, to be honest with you, at the beginning of the season I wasn’t a fan of it,” Hancock said. “I wanted to be that starter as I was last year, but I worked with it. I adjusted and it’s good. He goes out there, gets those first outs for me and then I feel confident for the rest of the game.”
He has clearly embraced it and then some, with the results paying off and his attitude clearly saying so.
Derric Stephens opens games for Hancock and often pitches the first two innings. The playoff opener saw Stephens face six batters and now allow a single hit before Hancock closed the door and pushed this team to the quarterfinals at Jesuit.
The last time Hancock actually started a game: March 2 at Roseville in the second regular season contest of the season.
“He’s coming in and his job is to go through the lineup one time, and once he gets through the lineup one time, hand the ball to Andrew,” Jones said. “And that gives us our opportunity to have our No. 1 guy the ball in his hand with the game on the line in the seventh inning. Derric has been outstanding with it, too.”
And when Hancock enters, Rocklin oftentimes knows a win is coming – particularly over this last month-plus where Rocklin has won series after series and elevated itself into a true contender.
The hard-throwing righty is 6-2 with a 1.16 ERA and 63 strikeouts compared to 12 walks. Opponents are hitting .210 off him, and that’s especially impressive for Hancock considering the level of competition he is facing in a talent-rich section and league.
“He can locate four pitches,” Jones said. “His velocity has increased enough. We haven’t thrown a ton of changeups this year just because it’s not the right pitch to throw. He’s competitive. He locates his fastball in the strike zone multiple places. It’s not just down the middle. He can throw in. He can throw away. He can throw to the top of the strike zone. He’s competitive with every pitch he throws.
“He wants to win.”
Evolution in Hancock’s game shows that increased velocity, hitting 90 miles per hour as early as last week.
Throughout the offseason, Hancock noted growing his game by growing himself in the weight room.
Get stronger.
That he has, and Rocklin is reaping the rewards with another opportunity to extend its season to next week.
“The real thing for me is I’ve been in the gym getting stronger, and I think producing a body that’s able to throw harder is really what it takes to actually be able to throw harder,” Hancock said.
