WBC: Syosset's Harrison Cohen makes most of his moment for Team Israel

TAMPA, Fla. – Harrison Cohen had the highest of expectations for the experience that awaited him when he left Yankees camp on March 1 to play for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic.

Those expectations were met and then some.

“It was unbelievable,” said Cohen, a Syosset native who pitched for Cold Spring Harbor High School. He is in his first big-league camp with the Yankees after signing with the organization as an undrafted free agent in 2022. “It was more than I had hoped, and I’m very grateful and honored to have been a part of it.

Cohen, like pretty much all WBC pitchers affiliated with major league teams on a strict pitch regimen, appeared in one game, Tuesday’s 6-2 victory over the Netherlands at loanDepot park in Miami.

He made the most of it.

The 26-year-old righthander, with Team Israel down 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning, took the mound and threw two dominant scoreless innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced. The last of those, Xander Bogaerts, a four-time All-Star, two-time World Series champion and five-time Silver Slugger award winner, went down looking at an 86-mph cutter that clipped the outside corner.

“I left there with exactly what I went there looking for, if not more,” Cohen said. “Every game was intense. You felt it in the crowd, you felt the energy. Pitching in the last game made it all the more special… finally getting to be on the field was incredible.”

Cohen’s desire to play in the WBC was stoked first and foremost for the chance to play for, as he put it, “the name you’re wearing across the chest.” But also because of the unique game atmospheres players past and present rave about pretty much 100% of the time when they return, often comparing it to the cacophony that comes with a big international soccer match.

“You felt it the entire game. There was that buzz, there was that energy, and it was just loud,” Cohen said. “Anything that happened, there was an instrument being played, there were fans screaming, fans yelling. It was never quiet… every ball put in play it was like something’s about to happen. Even if it was just a routine pop out, or a routine ground ball, the crack of the bat sounded different. Everything sounded different and the energy in that building was electric and crazy.”

While the games were excellent, Cohen noted that his most cherished memory was the opening introductions, when he ran out to the foul line accompanied by his parents, Marcia and Alan; his fiancée, Casey; his sister, Melissa; his brother-in-law, Alex; his aunt and uncle, Sara and Jeff; and a group of cousins in the stands."

“That was really, really special,” Cohen said.

Team Israel went 2-2 in pool play, not enough to qualify it for the quarterfinals but good enough to qualify it for the next WBC, which is scheduled to take place in 2029.

That is a baseball lifetime away for Cohen, who has more immediate goals ahead.

The 6-foot, 211-pound Cohen has had a steady rise in the organization, his performance last season putting him on the club’s radar in a way he hadn’t been before. Cohen went 3-2 with a 1.76 ERA in 49 games between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. More impressive, he posted a 1.57 ERA in 29 games in Triple-A. Cohen’s performance with Scranton made him one of those rare players whose numbers improve immediately after they go up a level, that performance essentially what earned him his first invite to big-league camp.

A word multiple rival scouts assigned to the Yankees’ minor league system use in describing Cohen is “pitchability.” That typically is reserved for pitcher who don’t rely strictly on velocity but, rather, precise command, deception and darting breaking stuff, among other things.

“He’s not crafty because he does throw reasonably hard [a mid-90s fastball],” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. “But there is a craft to what he does out there with his slider and his changeup and knowing how to add and subtract and use his shapes to get swing and miss, and he’s got a good head about him.”

One that has kept Cohen grounded, even during a spring training that, nearly four years ago when he went undrafted, likely seemed unattainable.

“Just have to keep pushing forward one day at a time, and just keep stacking the little things, little wins and keep on going,” Cohen said. “Definitely a memorable spring and something to keep building off of. I’m just really grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me during this spring.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.