Unlikely Pair Key Northridge Victory : College baseball: Mowl, Shepard took vastly different paths in becoming vital cogs for Matadors.

One left his previous college tam. The other’s previous college team left him.

Scott Mowl, suspected of being a malcontent, was a last-minute walk-on. Greg Shepard, a proven college hitter, was the object of an intense recruiting battle.

Together, they are pursuing a dream: playing in a College World Series.

Mowl and Shepard, a most unlikely duo, played significant roles in helping Cal State Northridge defeat Arizona State, 5-1, Friday in the first round of the NCAA Midwest Regional at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium-Tyler Field.

Mowl had two singles and two runs battled in. Shepard walked twice, singled and scored twice.

As a Yogi might say, who would have thunk it?

Not Mowl and Shepard. At least not a year ago.

Shepard was a highly regarded shortstop at United States International University. The school dropped baseball after the season, however, and Shepard landed in right field for Northridge.

Mowl, a strapping 6-foot-3 senior, spent last season at Division II Cal State Los Angeles where he batted .335 between stops in Coach John Herbold’s doghouse.

In three college seasons -- the first two at Cerritos College -- he had not distinguished himself.

Indeed, during a weeklong Northridge training camp before this season he took batting practice in what was known as “the lunchtime hitting group.”

Mowl’s comrades, mostly freshmen and other walk-ons, were relegated to hitting while the team’s top-flight players ate lunch. Several teammates told Mowl he was wasting his time.

“They were telling me negative stuff, but I was using it as a building block,” he said. “The more they said I couldn’t do it I got more damned determined.”

Slowly, Mowl earned playing time. First as a pinch-hitter, then as a spot starter.

Now, in only 160 at-bats, Mowl leads the Matadors with 55 runs batted in and he is batting .325, third-best among regulars.

Batting in the cleanup position against Arizona State, Mowl had an RBI single in Northridge’s four-run fourth inning. He fought off a two-strike pitch and hit a looping opposite-field hit that enabled Shepard to score the Matador’ first run.

“That’s something he couldn’t do a while back,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “He was a one-pitch guy. If you threw that one pitch, he could hit it. Now he makes adjustments. He’s had some big hits for us. And you can’t get them much bigger than that one he had today. We had to get something going.”

Having started Northridge’s scoring, Mowl also ended it. In the fifth, he pulled a single into right, scoring, you guessed it, Shepard.

Against Arizona State, Shepard, a junior right Fielder, batted second in the order. He was in the bottom half of the Northridge lineup most of the season.

Kernen attributed the promotion to several consecutive impressive batting-practice performances. He said he also was influenced by a conversation he had with Shepard on the plane ride back from the Matadors’ trip to North Carolina last weekend.

Asked how he thought he would play if Northridge earned a regional berth, Shepard replied, “Like a crazed dog.”

“Those were his exact words,” Kernen said. “He just looked at me with these eyes, like a Charlie Manson look. I said, ‘I think I’d better get that guy in a higher spot.”’

Shepard said he considered his involvement in the playoffs “mind-boggling.” Mowl used similar terms.

“It’s like both of those guys have new life,” Kernen said. “They each had their chances and now they’re right in the thick of where they want to be.”