Noah’s Arc

Noah Lowry talks straight about his hometown.

Nice place. Pretty scenery. But a little on the tranquil side, especially for kids.

While growing up in Ojai, Lowry constantly looked for ways to stay busy. Inevitably, he could always count on playing baseball.

When he was 2, he was firing balls through the hallways of his home, said his mother, Laurie. Usually for strikes, too, she added.

As he got older, Lowry organized Wiffle Ball tournaments in the front yard, played Little League and listened attentively to his uncle and cousin, both baseball fanatics.

It strengthened a goal he had set at age 5--to become a professional baseball player.

With slightly more than a week left until the amateur baseball draft, the kid from Ojai is about to take a major-league step.

A junior left-hander at Pepperdine, Lowry is expected to be taken within the first three rounds of the June 5 draft.

Lowry was an unknown commodity when he graduated from Nordhoff High.

“I didn’t get any looks out of Ojai,” he said. “Nobody ever really came out there.”

But Lowry has been a big-name pitcher all season for Pepperdine.

He is 14-1 with a 1.51 earned-run average and 137 strikeouts in 113.1 innings for the Waves (42-16), who play USC today in the second round of the NCAA regionals at USC.

Success didn’t come easy for Lowry after he transferred from Ventura College following his freshman season.

He had 100 strikeouts in 63 1/3 innings at Ventura and was selected in the 19th round by the Texas Rangers as a draft-and-follow prospect, but pitching in Division I baseball was different.

The fastball that worked in high school and junior college wasn’t as effective at Pepperdine. Mistakes were especially costly, he quickly realized.

Lowry won’t soon forget his first game with the Waves. He gave up a two-run home run to USC’s Bill Peavey on a belt-high fastball with a full count. The ball traveled about 500 feet.

“It could have landed yesterday for all I know,” he said.

Pepperdine lost, 8-1.

Lowry struggled as a starter but found a niche as a reliever in the second half of the season, finishing with a 6-2 record, 4.47 ERA and five saves in a team-high 29 appearances.

“Last year was really a grass-roots learning process for him,” Pepperdine Coach Frank Sanchez said. “It’s a transition to come to this level.”

Lowry improved his command by facing hitters in practice who stepped to the plate with 2-0 or 3-1 counts.

It forced him to plan ahead and avoid pitch predictability by working on pinpoint placement and behind-the-count curveballs.

Or, as Lowry said, to work on “pitching instead of throwing.”

His confidence continued to rise when he was invited to try out for the U.S. national team last June in Tucson. Lowry didn’t make the team, but he survived the first cut and trained with some of the best players in the nation.

“I got to see all these guys who are supposed to be the best of the best and I knew from then on I could compete with these guys,” Lowry said.

When this season began, he had a different mentality and improved ability. It showed.

He struck out a school-record 15 in a 4-2 victory over Santa Clara, breaking the previous mark of 14 set by Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Randy Wolf, formerly of El Camino Real High.

Lowry proved his value again against University of San Diego, fighting off pneumonia and a fever to win a key late-season game. He checked into a hospital the next morning but did not miss his next start.

His biggest performance, however, came last Saturday in the West Coast Conference championship series against Gonzaga. With an automatic berth to the NCAA regionals at stake, the Waves lost the first game of the best-of-three series.

But Lowry turned the tide with a brilliant performance in the second game, striking out 10 and allowing six hits in eight innings of a 10-0 victory. Pepperdine won again Sunday, clinching an automatic regional berth and winning the WCC title for the first time since 1995.

“He’s an elite college pitcher,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “As a pro prospect, he’s on the short list of the best prospects in the draft. He has good velocity. His command is very good and he’s in possession of a very legitimate breaking pitch.”

Lowry will need his best stuff today against No. 2-ranked USC (40-17). The Trojans will start Mark Prior (13-1, 1.49 ERA), projected by many to be the top pick in the draft.

It could be a tussle between two first-round talents. And a chance for the kid from Ojai to win a big one in the heart of Los Angeles.

“I really want to throw against USC again,” Lowry said. “They hit me around a little bit [last year]. It definitely was a humbling experience.

“I’m real excited about the draft, but my main focus is to get to [the College World Series in] Omaha.”