By Bret Strelow Staff writer
BUIES CREEK - Proximity and familiarity made Campbell a sensible destination for pitcher Heath Bowers.
A neighborly recommendation facilitated mutual interest.
Bowers, a right-handed junior from Lillington, enters tonight's ESPNU-televised start against Gardner-Webb with a 7-2 record this season and 18-3 mark in his college career.
When Campbell assistant Justin Haire watched Bowers pitch for the first time as a Harnett Central High School junior, a low-80s fastball raised serious doubts that he could help the Camels. Bowers likely wouldn't have received another look without assists from Jay Smith, previously a student manager for Campbell's baseball team, and Smith's cousin, Trevor, who pitched for the Camels in 2007.
The Smiths have baseball connections to the Bowers family, and Jay lives only three houses away from Campbell head coach Greg Goff. During a summertime conversation at a nearby fishing area, Goff learned from Jay that Bowers' velocity had increased.
Campbell coaches watched Bowers pitch again during a showcase game after his junior year, and he threw well enough on his birthday - July 25 - to earn a scholarship offer.
"Now I'm here, and this is where I belong," Bowers said this week. "I love playing for Campbell."
A sinking fastball that routinely measures in the mid-80s and sometimes reaches the high-80s handcuffed N.C. State on April 22, when Bowers allowed five hits and induced 10 groundouts over eight innings of a 9-0 road victory for Campbell (29-14, 12-6 Big South). He also mixes in a slider he developed following a freshman season in which he made only eight appearances.
Bowers was a No. 2 starter with a 9-0 record by the end of his sophomore season, and he's now the staff ace for a second-place team.
"You get some sink and locate it, especially now with these bats, you've got a chance to win," Goff said. "When he's in control, that makes his slider that much better. His fastball runs in on those righties, and the breaking ball goes away from them, so it's really hard to square him up. You have to start your swing a little earlier because the fastball is moving in on the hands. You throw the breaking ball, now you're out in front."
New dimension
After pitching primarily in mid-week games and posting a 5.06 ERA as a Campbell freshman, Bowers joined the Licking County (Ohio) Settlers of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.
He had struggled to locate a slow, loopy curveball in his first season with the Camels, but he added a slider to complement his fastball by playing catch every day with summer roommate Kyle Turner, who was a St. John's pitcher at the time.
"Developing a good breaking ball to get college guys out, that and gaining confidence, trusting myself to get hitters out, those were the two biggest things for me," Bowers said.
Bowers assumed a bigger role as his sophomore season progressed, and he didn't allow an earned run while lasting at least six innings in consecutive starts against Rider, UNC-Asheville and Old Dominion. He later threw a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 victory against Longwood and finished the year with a 1.69 ERA.
Bowers opened this season 4-0, extending his streak of consecutive decisions with a win to 13, but he struggled in several Big South starts before taking the mound at N.C. State. Double plays in the second and third innings erased leadoff batters who had reached, and a pop-out to right field enabled Bowers to escape a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning. He worked through a two-on, one-out threat in the sixth inning and finished with five strikeouts in a 116-pitch outing.
"He's your (Greg) Maddux, (Tom) Glavine guy who commands pitches, commands the strike zone, doesn't walk anybody, throws three pitches for strikes and mixes them very well," N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said.
Family affair
The win in Raleigh was extra special for Bowers because he grew up rooting for the Wolfpack - his father, Bobby, attended N.C. State.
Campbell and Appalachian State extended the best offers to Bowers when he was in high school, and pitching close to home is helpful to his dad, who stays extremely busy during the spring selling farm chemicals and seedling fertilizer. He's a fixture at Jim Perry Stadium, often pacing near the first-base dugout during the home team's at-bats because he half-jokingly believes his positioning helps the Camels' offense.
With Bobby in attendance at N.C. State's Doak Field, Bowers didn't need much run support.
"I was rooting 100 percent for Campbell," Bobby said before adding with a laugh, "There was no N.C. State blood in my body that night."
Campbell, which followed its shutout of N.C. State with a come-from-behind, 10-inning win at Virginia Tech, has three-game sets with Gardner-Webb, VMI and Coastal Carolina left on its regular-season schedule. The Camels also play nonconference games against North Carolina on Tuesday and UNC-Wilmington on May 13.
Campbell likely needs to win the Big South tournament to receive an NCAA bid one year after an at-large snub kept the Camels out of the field with a 49-10 record, their second straight season with at least 40 victories. Not bad for a program that went 3-27 in its Atlantic Sun Conference swan song three years ago, when Bowers was a high school senior.
His arrival, made possible by patience and an open-minded approach from Campbell's coaches, has coincided with the revival.
"Helping lead the change of our program, the rebirth of it right in my hometown, it's pretty cool just to see people out on the town every day who'll say, 'Congratulations on a good win last night,' " Bowers said. "It's just kind of cool to play my entire baseball career here and represent Lillington and Harnett County."
Staff writer Bret Strelow can be reached at strelowb@fayobserver.com or 486-3513.
