On top of being a starting pitcher for the varsity baseball team, freshman Zach Cohen is being featured as this month’s sports spotlight because of his success on the mound despite his lack of high school experience.

Cohen’s notable talent has provided him with a spot on this year’s varsity team consisting of mostly juniors, seniors, two sophomores, and himself, the only freshman.

“Redwood has a ton of great baseball players and I’m honestly so humbled to be selected on varsity as a freshman,” said Cohen.

“If it’s not tough, then it’s not fun. I try to play up with the guys I am playing with,” he said. “I have a lot of great leaders on my team that I look up to a lot. Those are the ones that are carrying me through.”

As the youngest player, Cohen faces players that are older than him by a few years.

“It’s tough, but I feel like I can do it, he said. “As long as I keep working hard, keep doing my exercises, keep listening to the coaches, everything like that, I feel like I can pull through and have a good season. I want to do my job to make sure my team wins, whether it be on the bench even if I’m not pitching, talk up, chatter, and be a leader on and off the field. Hopefully we can restart up the Redwood program a little bit.”

Cohen has already been able to showcase his skills by starting in a preseason game earlier in the month against Windsor High School, striking out three in four innings.

Cohen said that he has been committed to playing baseball since he was young. At the start of eighth grade, Cohen joined the Bombers, a higher-level travel team. Cohen played outfield and first base, but mostly specialized as a pitcher.

Among Cohen’s mentors is his little league coach, Steve Stewart, who coached him for three consecutive seasons.

“He taught me to be a leader and to take care of the team even though I may be the youngest guy,” Cohen said.

He also looks up to his private instructor Jesse Foppert who fine-tuned his mechanics and gave him a great pitcher’s mindset, and the Slider’s club team coach Jake Carillo, who gave him the basics of baseball and got him started competitive-wise.

This past summer, Cohen was invited to try out for the U15 United States National Team in North Carolina after making the Northern California Regional Team, but fell short. However, he was invited back to try again this June in Arizona.

The varsity baseball team will play today at Marin Catholic at 4:30 p.m.