FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Friday, April 1, 2016 ‘Jackets ride Johnson’s electric right arm as pitching staff staple
Possessing one of the most effective weapons in the GNAC, Yellowjacket right-handed pitcher Tanner Johnson continues to baffle his opposition with his electric slider and off-kilter delivery as an ace for the ‘Jackets. MSUB SPORTS – Tanner Johnson’s slider has a personality of its own. The 6-foot-3 senior right-handed pitcher for the Montana State University Billings baseball team relies on his greatest asset in any count, using it to get ahead of unsuspecting leadoff hitters early equally as effectively as to break down the swings of powerful cleanup men in full counts. “Sometimes when he is warming up, he’ll really be finishing his slider out in front,” commented sophomore catcher Landon Peterson. “When he’s doing that, I know I can use that pitch throughout the day and that it will be extremely effective.” When Johnson’s slider is locked in, it’s the best single pitch among the entire Yellowjacket pitching staff. Starting out behind the back of a right-handed hitter, the pitch out of Johnson’s hand around 85 miles per hour shows no sign it’s headed anywhere for the plate.
But with the force generated from his deceptive windup, the red seams scream out of his fingertips and the ball comes to life as it begins its split-second charge towards Peterson’s target. By the time Johnson releases the pitch, his body is a full stride’s length in front of the rubber, narrowing the already microscopic time his opponent has to react in the batter’s box. Johnson coaxes wild swing-and-misses as he lures batters to reach for the outside pitch, before backing up his slider with a dancing, low-90s, two-seam fastball that tails far enough into the hands of righties to make cutter-throwing left-handed pitchers jealous. His quick, fidgety windup is packed with power, his knee threatening to knock into his chin and his cap on the brink of flying off upon his release. It’s Juan Marichal meets Heath Bell. Transferring to the Yellowjackets last season after two years at Salt Lake Community College, Johnson immediately fit into the role as Game 1 Johnson’s hat flirts with taking off in harmony with his signature slider. starter and pitched his way to first-team all-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honors as a junior. Less than a year and a half into his career at MSUB, Johnson is already making an assault on the program’s record books, as his 87 career strikeouts are sixth-most in Yellowjacket history. More important than the pitches he throws, returning home to help build a championship program at MSUB was the leading factor in becoming a Yellowjacket in the eyes of the Belgrade, Mont., native. MONTANAN AT HEART Spending his early childhood years in California, Johnson grew up in a world of competitive baseball. By age two he was wearing down the plastic balls in his Little Tikes 3-in-1 baseball trainer his mother provided him with, and by five he had the ability to grasp the concept that then-Major League Baseball superstar center fielder Jim Edmonds was his second cousin. Playing primarily first and third base early on in high school, Johnson’s family relocated to the Bozeman area when he turned 16. Suddenly, the familiar concept of high-school baseball was absent from Johnson’s life, and the anticipation of American Legion ball starting in May wore on a player who was used to year-round action. “Coming from a place where high-school baseball was huge to a place where it didn’t exist was a big deal,” Johnson said. “It was a weird transition.” Having rarely toed the pitching rubber entering the legion season after his junior year of high school, it was under the tutelage of Duwayne Scott on the Gallatin Valley Outlaws that Johnson came to life on the mound. “Coach Scott pushed me and made me believe I could do something with baseball and play
Johnson’s unique windup combines a high leg kick with a deceptive, herky-jerky motion towards home plate.
in college,” Johnson said. “I ended up deciding to go the junior college route, knowing I could progress there and move on to a four-year school.” When his two years at SLCC were up and it came time to find a new home to extend his career, Johnson thought back to the initial contact he had made with Yellowjacket head coach Rob Bishop at the end of his prep career. Though Johnson admittedly had no idea what MSUB’s interest in him would be, what started out as an inquiring email to Coach Bishop turned into a signed letter of intent in the span of one week. The biggest draw to MSUB in the mind of Johnson was a return to familiarity, both within his home state and to rejoin many of the familiar faces he had played with and against in legion ball. Upon arriving on campus in the fall of 2014, Johnson was quickly reminded of his connection on the Bozeman Bucks with fellow right-hander Cody Cooper, and with the ultra-competitive Luke Reinschmidt whom he’d spent a fall season playing with. Johnson fondly recalled the time he spoiled the bleached-white uniform of Myles Berkram, firing a handful of blackberries mini-slider-style to settle a friendly argument between the two during a fall ball game. Before long, Johnson was helping lead the 2015 Yellowjackets to their first-ever GNAC title, and first winning season since baseball had been restored prior to the 2006 season. “That title definitely meant more last year with a lot of us being from Montana,” Johnson commented. “It was just a really quality group of guys who brought it together and had a lot of success. Winning a title is always a cool experience, and we are back in it for this season.” BRINGING OUT THE BEST “When he’s able to run his fastball in on righties, and have a slider that runs away, both from the exact same horizontal plane, it’s hard for guys to sit on either pitch. If they’re looking slider, he’ll jam them with the fastball, and if they’re looking fastball he’ll make them swing and miss.” – MSUB catcher Landon Peterson on senior right-hander Tanner Johnson. When Peterson, a Boise, Idaho native strapped on his catching gear for the first time as a Yellowjacket, he didn’t quite know what he was getting into. His very first task on Day 1 of fall ball was to catch a bullpen session for Johnson, and his analytical mind quickly started strategizing how he was going to handle a fastball that ran five inches one way and a slider that broke two feet the other. “I was a little worried at first,” Peterson admitted. Since their opening salvo, Peterson and Johnson have developed a chemistry as the former has shown he possesses the talent it takes to manage one of Johnson’s starts. “Tanner wants to have a good tempo going, and he trusts me to make sure I’m analyzing the game,” Peterson said. “We both rely on each other, and I don’t call the same
Peterson (right) and Johnson have fostered a strong connection as one of the top batteries for the ‘Jackets this season.
game for Tanner as I might with other pitchers. He’s got that stuff to attack (hitters) early in the count with the fastball or slider.” Part of Johnson’s success in getting ahead of hitters lies within his deception, as his three-quarters arm slot presents a challenging angle for opposing hitters to pick up the ball. The unique release point hasn’t always been there for the right-hander however, who started out with the more standard over-the-top delivery that yielded a straightforward 12-6 curveball. “I decided to stop being so orthodox, and when I dropped my arm angle down it gave my ball more run,” Johnson commented on an adjustment he made with Coach Scott during his legion ball career.
Johnson’s delivery features a quick leg kick that drives his momentum into his low, three-quarters arm slot, where he generates a violent release throwing across his body.
Even with his newly-refined arm slot, Johnson still had no intention of turning his curveball into a slider. The adjustment occurred while experimenting with different grips, and is ultimately a derivative of Johnson’s well-established twoseamer. “It’s just something I have one hundred percent confidence in every time I throw it,” Johnson commented on his slider. “I still don’t know how it moves as much as it does, and sometimes it has a mind of its own.” Toiling with his pitching mechanics while in junior college had ill effects on Johnson, as he never felt that he was throwing with full confidence as he began his collegiate career. Instead, his attention was turned towards adjustments that sometimes felt unnatural and impacted the effectiveness of his pitches. The moment he set foot on campus at MSUB, all of that changed. “Coach Bishop let me pitch, and do what I needed to do to be successful,” Johnson said on his coach’s encouragement to work with the mechanics that felt most natural. “It has been a really great experience coming back, and I almost wish I would’ve played four years here.” Though Peterson has known no other set of mechanics than those Johnson currently employs, he can attest as a hitter, as well as a catcher, that when Johnson is locked in he’s nearly untouchable. “As a lefty, I’m kind of lucky because he’s
not able to run his fastball in on me,” Peterson said regarding the occasional chance he gets to face Johnson at the plate during intra-squad scrimmages. “I think I’ve hit off of him three times, and I have one hit to left field and two strikeouts, so I’m one-for-three. I’ll take it.” TANNER’S TOUGHNESS “To me, a quality starter is a guy who, when he’s good he dominates, and when he’s not so good he still gives your team a chance to win. That exemplifies Tanner. Even on an off-day, he usually goes deep into the game and we have a chance to win.” – MSUB head coach Rob Bishop on senior right-hander Tanner Johnson. When the final out in Game 1 was recorded at Dehler Park last Saturday, the Yellowjackets looked to a scoreboard that read 10-0 in favor of Western Oregon University. The team hadn’t played particularly poorly, in fact its offensive approach against one of the top pitchers in the league in the Wolves’ Brady Miller had been right on par as they ousted him with 140 pitches into the sixth inning. But the team had been beat, badly, and was in danger of slipping in the conference standings with a record of 5-8. Johnson had witnessed his team get shut out for the first time of the season from the third base dugout, sweatshirt covering his white No. 25 jersey and keeping his right arm warm as afternoon shifted to evening. He knew he had a job to do. Coming off perhaps the worst three-start stretch of his brief career with the ‘Jackets, Johnson was looking to right his own ship, not to mention give his team the kind of boost it was in desperate need of. In the midst of the tough string of outings for Johnson was a start at Northwest Nazarene University on March 11, where things appeared to be rolling as he put up zeroes through five innings. Then the Crusaders’ Tyler Davis did something to Johnson that no player had achieved since his legion ball days, as he led off the frame with a solo home run. “I was aware of it, and not giving up a bomb in five years was something I prided myself on,” Johnson said with a smile. “But it had to happen sometime. I get guys to put the ball in play, but I usually keep the ball down and people don’t hit the long ball off of me.” Johnson shakes hands with 2015 senior catcher Conner Holbrook - while Kyle Durbin (16) and Blake Loran celebrate in the background - after authoring a 3-hit shutout in a 16-0 win over Northwest Nazarene.
Having recorded just seven strikeouts total and not lasting past the fifth inning in his three previous starts, Johnson was determined that things would be different in the nightcap against the Wolves. When WOU’s Cody Sullivan waved at a 1-2 slider to end the first inning, not only had Johnson struck out the side, but he’d reestablished his confidence. Johnson battled through six innings, and started the seventh by carving the outside corner on a 2-2 pitch to WOU leadoff man Forrest Garcia for his 10th strikeout of the game. Handing the ball off to closer Adam Cox, Johnson again watched from the dugout as the ‘Jackets nearly let the win slip away, but showed resilience and stormed third baseman Kyle Durbin after his walkoff walk in the bottom of the seventh. MSUB went on to win the series behind the best start of the year from Cooper on Sunday, and now as the ‘Jackets head
to Lacey, Wash., to challenge Saint Martin’s University in a four-game conference series, Johnson will take the mound with his confidence restored. ‘JACKETS BACK JOHNSON “Once you let go of that baseball, you can’t control anything after that. It’s all up to the guys behind you, and I can attribute most of my success to them.” – MSUB senior Tanner Johnson on his confidence in the senior defensive unit playing behind him. Though Johnson was dominant for the majority of his start against the Wolves, the Yellowjacket defense turned inningending double plays for three consecutive frames to back their senior. “Those double plays to end three innings was a great confidence booster,” Johnson said. “It takes the entire team to make something happen, and without all of those guys we would be nothing.” Johnson has twice earned GNAC Pitcher of the Week honors, baffling NNU in a complete-game, three-hit shutout last year in a 16-0 home win, and shutting out Holy Names University in the team’s 2016 debut for a 3-0 win in early February. While Johnson has shown his capability of pitching the ‘Jackets to victory, he is quick to note that with the efforts of the rest of the staff headed by Cooper that the team is in good hands for years to come. “Cody is an absolutely phenomenal pitcher,” Johnson said. “Him being successful has given our guys something to strive for and to be like. Next year’s guys are going to look at him and want to be as good as him.” As for the pitch that Peterson trusts Johnson to throw in any count, in any game, against any hitter, the slider is a perfect representation of Johnson as a whole. Wild but effective, unpredictable but accurate, and the signature of Johnson’s legacy.
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