Baseball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports:
District Quarter Final Against Garnet Valley Last year winning 12-2.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports:
When I was 12 playing in Cooperstown I hit a ball to left field and got thrown out at first base.
Music on my playlist: Tons of country and R&B, Morgan Wallen, Thomas Rhett, Lil Baby and Lil Uzi Vert.
Future plans: Undecided
Words to live by:
“Always remember who you are and whose you are”
One goal before turning 30:
To become a physical therapist or athletic trainer.
One thing people don’t know about me:
I have 3 younger siblings.
By Ed Morrone
Like the baseball team he plays for, Cole Fisher has been mostly perfect this season.
Prior to last week, Fisher, an ace pitcher and middle-of-the-order infielder for Hatboro-Horsham, was on a legendary heater on the mound. In 25 innings pitched, he had allowed just one earned run in performances that included a no-hitter against Upper Moreland and a shutout of a talented Quakertown team. Not only that, but Fisher was swinging a consistently hot bat out of the three hole, hitting close to .350 while helping guide the Hatters to an unblemished 14-0 record in the SOL Liberty Division.
Hatboro-Horsham is currently the top-ranked team in District One 6A, a year after advancing to the district semifinals (as the No. 7 seed) and the state tournament where Fisher and company fell to La Salle. The Hatters and Fisher were very good last year, and this season has been shaping up to be something truly special. It has remained that way even after Fisher began fighting off a hip and hamstring injury that he and the team are still trying to properly diagnose.
The ailment chased an uncharacteristically hittable Fisher from a start against Plymouth Whitemarsh where he surrendered four runs in three innings. By his own admission, Fisher was “really upset,” feeling he had let down the teammates that he loves and who count on him to be dominant on days he pitches. But as much as baseball is a sport of failure, it is also one of redemption, and Fisher found himself at the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning with his team trailing by two runs. With two outs, two strikes and runners on second and third, Fisher laced a sharp single to center to tie the score, and the Hatters won the game in extras to stay undefeated in league play. It was the perfect symbol for this current season: Fisher finally bent on the mound, but his spirit and competitive fire refused to break.
“I felt great during the day and in warmups, and when I got out to the mound, I only felt good,” Fisher recalled shortly after his team’s win over PW which secured the division title for the Hatters. “Every time I threw a pitch and landed, there was a shooting pain in my hamstring. I told myself to be a warrior, the team is counting on me. I don’t think I would’ve been able to stay in the game at all if the guys didn’t come up to me when I was at my lowest and tell me, ‘You brought us this far, now it’s our turn to get you back.’ They had me the entire way and allowed me to hit that ball in the seventh. I love every single one of them so much.”
Right now, given what is at stake, head coach Pete Moore and his staff are holding Fisher off the mound until all parties involved get a better handle on what exactly is ailing the star pitcher. Even after the outlier outing against PW, Fisher’s stats on the mound are still electrifying: In seven games (28 innings), Fisher has posted a 5-0 record with a microscopic 1.00 ERA, with 41 strikeouts and 11 walks. He has surrendered just 16 hits the entire season.
The leap to shutdown pitcher between Fisher’s junior and senior year is one that was hoped for but not entirely expected. Fisher played on the freshman team as a ninth grader and lost his entire sophomore campaign due to the pandemic, and despite the fact that he’s a talented catcher, Moore expected to mostly deploy Fisher defensively at all four infield positions, with his primary one being second base. Then, shortly before the season began, Moore came to Fisher with a proposition: the Hatters had an ace pitcher in senior Jimmy Tooley but needed more mound depth. Would Fisher be interested in heeding the call?
“He had been expected to be a position player and hadn’t been pitching, but I went to him and asked if he was willing to pitch since we needed more arms,” Moore said. “He didn’t hesitate. 'Sure coach, no problem.' It speaks to who he is as a competitor. He doesn’t care what position he’s playing, and even when he’s fighting a hip and hamstring injury, Cole is willing to put himself on the line for his team. He’ll do whatever he can. No role is too big or small for him.”
Fisher had done some pitching for the freshman team, but varsity baseball is a different animal, and Fisher was asked to play a role other kids may have shied away from.
“Through COVID, I didn’t really throw at all,” Fisher recalled. “Then Coach Moore texted me before a non-league game against CB South saying he wanted to give me a start on the bump. I just said ‘Hey Coach, I’m ready for it.’ I threw pretty well, and it gave me confidence realizing I had something to strive toward. Plus, I had a great senior mentor in Jimmy, who told me about the way he prepared and just taught me so much about pitching at this level. He was a big part of my development.”
Fisher had a solid year despite being thrust into a slightly unfamiliar scenario, appearing in 11 games and posting a 3-1 record with a 3.95 ERA in 44 ⅓ innings. He struck out 35 and walked 20, while also batting .377 with a home run, six doubles, 28 RBI and getting on base almost 42 percent of the time he came to bat. The Hatters went 14-11 overall and 11-5 in the division, finishing behind PW and Abington but still making it to the final four in districts, which was good enough for a berth in the PIAA playoffs.
With Tooley graduating and Fisher finally able to have a more conventional offseason not dictated by the pandemic, Moore had big plans for Fisher.
“We needed someone to be the ace of our staff, and I wanted it to be him,” Moore said. “In the offseason, he put more time into his pitching and developed a cutter, a fourth pitch that he can throw for strikes. At the high school level, most pitchers can throw two pitches for strikes, while the really good ones can throw three. Cole has four. Whether he’s at the plate, in the field or on the mound, he’s the epitome of a competitor. He hates the idea of losing more than anything, so Cole is a guy you want in your foxhole to go to battle until the very end. It’s a pleasure to work with a guy like that.”
*****
Growing up the oldest of four to a baseball and sports-loving father (Cole’s dad also played baseball at Hatboro-Horsham), Fisher always seemed destined to make an impact in the high school baseball program. He played basketball until sophomore year before giving it up to focus solely on baseball with Hatboro-Horsham and with the Philadelphia Angels of the USABL, Fisher’s AAU squad.
Fisher has always swung a pretty consistent bat (he's at .346 with 22 RBIs this season), but the leap from good pitcher to great is not an easy one to make. So, how did he do it?
“The biggest part was the extra work I put in the offseason to get stronger,” he said. “As a junior, I didn’t have the tools to dominate and was more of a finesse pitcher who could throw strikes in the zone. This season, my velocity jumped (from 80-82 mph to 86-88), so I can get hitters out in different ways. I added a slider to my repertoire, and I have the confidence to throw all four pitches for strikes.”
It wasn’t just Fisher who put in the extra work, either. The entire team, still with a sour taste in their mouths from the loss to La Salle in states, started meeting at school at 6 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the winter to lift weights and continue to build camaraderie and chemistry together. If you take Fisher at his word - and there’s no reason not to, given the standings, the experiment worked. Every single player on the team loves and cares for each other. Practices are celebrated, not dreaded, as the best part of their day. In fact, the team has zero captains, as the 10 seniors and six juniors equally distribute and handle responsibility with aplomb.
“That game against La Salle in states hurt us, and we never wanted to feel that again,” Fisher said. “We’ve had two dates circled on the calendar all year: June 2 is the district championship, and June 23 is the state final. We’re rallying around those two dates. We all want it for each other. Nobody is selfish, we just want to be the best we can to go as far as we can. The preparation we all put in during the offseason allowed us to make this jump.”
Of course, as the Hatters rumble toward the district tournament that begins on May 23, the lingering question is what Fisher’s health will look like two weeks from now. The injury he’s dealing with does not limit him at the plate or in the field, but pitching is different. Fisher tried to pitch through the ailment against PW, and he was humbled, so the team is operating with extreme caution, not wanting to jeopardize Fisher’s present or future in the sport. So far, Fisher has combatted the injury with ice, stretching and visits to a chiropractor.
“Right now, I don’t know what the injury is, so we’re taking it day by day,” said Fisher, who also dealt with a stress fracture in his back last summer and fall. “I’ve been able to will myself through it while hitting and running with just minor pain, but it becomes major when I pitch, so we’ll have to figure out a way for me to get out there with as little pain as possible so I can be as efficient as I need to be. For the rest of the regular season, we are taking it day by day, but come playoffs I’ll be ready for my team. Nothing is going to hold me back from playing with my brothers, and we all know it.”
It’s no secret how badly Fisher wants to be at full strength as the guy on the mound for the Hatters, but it’s also been comforting for the team to know he can still impact the game with his bat and glove. Every member of this team is pulling on the same rope in hopes of accomplishing something truly remarkable for the program.
“This whole group of guys in the senior class is special,” Moore said. “They care about winning more than anything. They hate losing. It’s as close a group that’s ever come through here, and Cole is in the middle of everything. He does the little things, the big things, and he wants the big moments.”
As far as what comes after high school, Fisher is still evaluating his options. His pitching dominance has attracted the attention of some college coaches (Moore cited Bloomsburg and Arcadia as teams interested), and Moore said Fisher “should and will” play collegiate baseball somewhere. Fisher said it’s always been his dream to play in college, and if he has any say in it, he will “play baseball for the rest of my life if I can.”
“Right now, my family and I are still going through the school season and testing the waters,” he said. “But I know that I can help a college team out. We’ll keep testing the waters and see where it takes us. I love this game.”
Like many high school athletes who have dealt with multiple injuries, Fisher stated his desire to become either a physical therapist or athletic trainer. He’s had some great people in his life to help him through various ailments, and Fisher wants to pay it forward by helping others through similar obstacles that he has endured.
When he’s not grinding on the baseball field, Fisher loves spending time with his family, especially his 6- and 4-year-old brothers who he tries to positively mentor as much as he can. He’s also taken up golf, and the gym has become his happy place, a setting where he can tune out all the noise and just focus on physical and mental self-improvement.
Above all else, Fisher is thankful to have more time with his best friends on the diamond, even if he got a little dinged up in the process. If all goes according to Fisher’s plan, the Hatters will have a lot more weeks of competing together before this incredible season and ride comes to a stop.
“What I will miss most about this is just being with my best friends every single day,” he said. “Practice is never a chore for us. It’s the best part of the day, getting to see each other, hang out and have fun playing the game we all love so much. For two or three hours, we all enjoy and love that time together. I know I’ll look back in future years about this experience and miss it so much then too, because when else in your life do you get to spend time with your best friends every single day?”
