Some at Orange County high school rooting for alum Gerrit Cole pitching for Yankees in World Series

ORANGE, Calif. (KABC) -- The starting pitchers in Game 5 of the World Series Wednesday in New York are expected to be a rematch from Game 1, Jack Flaherty for the Dodgers and Gerrit Cole for New York.

Both are Southern California natives.

Cole grew up in Orange County and is considered one of the best arms in the game, with a 2023 AL Cy Young award and season strikeout records for the Astros and Yankees.

Even though he's playing against the Dodgers, he still has plenty of fans at his alma mater, Orange Lutheran High School.

"To be able to follow Gerrit and the path he's taken and where he's at now, I'm definitely rooting for him and the Yankees," said Erin Shevlin, the school's baseball academic advisor.

He stays in touch with the school. A 2023 video shows the former Lancer visiting campus, meeting with his old teachers before being inducted into the school's hall of fame.

Jeannie Mooney, his former senior year art teacher, grows emotional at seeing how far her former student has come as she shows off a vase the ace made all those years ago.

She remembers him considering a big decision back then: A Yankees fan as a kid, he was drafted by the team out of high school but had to consider whether to attend UCLA instead.

He ultimately chose the college path.

"I was really proud of him because it would be such a draw as a high school student to be like I'm gonna be in the big leagues," Mrs. Mooney said. "And it just showed that he respected his parents and really listened to their advice and was thinking about the long plan for his life not the short term plan."

Cole would eventually end up with the Yankees, but only after stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros first.

And he remains an inspiration to players on the school team.

"Right now he's actually like my favorite player in the MLB," said Orange Lutheran pitcher Zach Reiland. "I actually look up to him and me being a pitcher I can in a sense take stuff from him and learn from his mentality."

Another memento at the school is a squishy ball that could be one of the first items Cole ever autographed. His math teacher says he'd sit there playing with the ball in class. She finally told him, go ahead and sign it since you're gonna be famous one day.

"To know that a Lancer has the opportunity to play for a World Series is something that all of our boys are super excited about," said head baseball coach R.J. Farrell.