Bottom of the seventh, tie game, bases are loaded, two outs, full count; for those who do not play baseball, this is nothing more than a run on sentence. But for junior Tanner Cohn, this is the difference between pitching the varsity baseball team to another win, or to another loss.
“For me, baseball is simply what motivates me to go to school everyday just so I can play in practice or pitch in a game,” Cohn said.
Cohn has been playing baseball since he was five years old. He played on a recreational baseball team for the Olney Boys and Girls Club (OBGC) for five years until his dad encouraged him to try out for a more advanced-level travel team.
Soon after following his dad’s advice, Cohn went on to play for the Olney All Stars until he was 13 years old and then transferred to the Rockville Cobras, which he still plays for outside of the RHS season. On both of these travel teams, Cohn participated in numerous tournaments, his favorite being the Sports at the Beach tournament, held annually at Rehoboth Beach.
Last spring at RHS, Cohn was preoccupied pitching for the JV baseball team. He struck out a team high of 39 opponents which helped the JV Rams to an outstanding record of 11 – 1. It was with his success that varsity head coach Farron Riggs decided to pull him up for the varsity playoff run.
Riggs said, “He pitched well for us a�� He’s got very good mechanics and very good, capable pitches: his curveball, his fastball and his changeup, and [now] he’s working on developing those pitches so they can be more effective and he can use them in any part of the count.”
Despite the fact that it is still early on in the season and no games have been played, returning varsity players have already been pleased with Cohn’s pitching.
“Tanner has very good command of his off-speed pitches and is comfortable throwing them in any situation which makes him a beast,” senior catcher Sam Chisholm said,
Over the summer, the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) reorganized divisions which could potentially help the team to a division championship. Division 3A now consists of James Hubert Blake HS, Damascus HS, Magruder HS, Poolesville HS, Seneca Valley HS, Watkins Mill HS, Wheaton HS along with RHS. RHS lost to Blake and Magruder by only three runs and Poolesville by two, but beat the other teams by as much as 28 runs last season.
Riggs said, “Expectations are something that’s hard to put on kids a�� more reasonably, I would just like to see him [Cohn] go out there and compete and battle the way he has. I don’t want to put a win title or strikeout total but if he goes out and does the stuff Tanner can do, we’ll have a very successful season.”