By Micah Frenkel ’27
Credit: Zack Porat ’25
Zack Porat ’25 has worked for over fifteen years to commit and be recruited to Montgomery College (MC) to play baseball. For many high school seniors, committing to a college means a sense of relief and sometimes early senioritis. But for Porat, it’s just the beginning of the next chapter in his baseball career. He plans to put in as much work as possible for his final high school baseball season, so he can flourish as a baseball player and achieve his dream of making it to the MLB one day. Specifically, Porat wants to work on his pitching skills, including increasing the velocity of his pitches, and sharpening his off-speed pitches.
I had the pleasure to interview my fellow teammate on what this upcoming baseball season means to him, and about committing to MC. According to Porat, he wants this season to be extraordinary, and for it to be so, he is going to “play even harder and put even more work in.” Porat and the Berman baseball team are determined to make this season anything but average. The Cougars want to win their first ever Potomac Valley Athletic Conference (PVAC) championship and maybe even the Columbus Baseball Invitational tournament.
Entering into his final high school baseball season, Porat says,“there would be no better way to end my high school baseball career and my time here at Berman then by raising the first ever baseball championship banner,” a goal and trophy he has been working to get for many years.
As a three-time First Team All-Conference pitcher, he has been a key player on the team every year, earning the PVAC “Player of the Year” honor last season as well as making history as the first baseball “Player of the Year” in school history.
His incredible pitching skills have already helped the team in numerous ways. Recently, Porat threw Berman’s fourth no-hitter in school history, ending his no-hitter with thirteen strikeouts. Over three years of high school baseball, Porat has had astonishing statistics on the mound, including a 0.7 high school ERA. Each year, he struck out over 40 batters, totaling 160 strikeouts in 66 and a third innings. These superlative numbers unsurprisingly led him to be recruited to MC.
Winning the PVAC baseball championship is not an unachievable goal, as Porat believes this year Berman will have “the best baseball team that the school has ever had.” Another achievement Porat hopes to attain is to make the PVAC first team all conference for the fourth consecutive year. And, at the pinnacle, he hopes to two-peat as the PVAC player of the year.
Porat gives credit to his teammates and coaches for making him the best player he could become, saying that his “teammates and coaches have always believed in [him]” and that they have always been “supportive” of him. Regarding his commitment, coach Eric Sohl said, “We are so excited to see Zack play in college.” To see Zack “make his dreams come true” was truly inspirational to everyone, and Coach Sohl hopes it “will help to motivate more students to work hard and chase their dreams as true student athletes.” Although he is leaving Berman, Porat is excited for this new chapter in his life. He believes that MC will be the place where “it all starts,” and he is extremely excited to be on the Raptors team next year.
