This Commodore a Hit

Jeremy Sowers grew up rooting for first baseman Will Clark as he moved from team to team. Yet Sowers never became a fan of any franchise.

His reason? He’s waiting for his own roster spot.

“I didn’t want to become too attached to a team because in a couple years I might be drafted and be a Red Sox fan and drafted by the Yankees or vice versa,” Sowers said.

Good decision.

Now in his third season at Vanderbilt, Sowers is the top-ranked left-hander and No. 7 prospect among college players in Baseball America’s midseason draft preview.

“If he has the very best year, we’re going to lose him,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “Do I want to lose him? No. But at the same time, in a lot of ways, I hope we do for his sake.”

The 6-foot-1 Sowers has excellent command of four pitches, including a fastball that averages about 88-92 mph, and a slider, his favorite offspeed pitch, which keeps hitters off balance routinely.

As a sophomore last season, Sowers was 7-5 with a 2.50 ERA and won his last seven games in the regular season. He led the Southeastern Conference with 123 strikeouts.

He’s been even better as a junior, helping Vanderbilt (25-8) break into Baseball America’s Top 25 rankings for the first time in team history.

Sowers was 6-1 with 62 strikeouts and a 3.07 ERA heading into a weekend series against Arkansas. He struck out 11 in his last outing, a 6-5 victory over Alabama on April 9.

Testing himself in the tough SEC, which has seven teams ranked in the Top 25, is one reason Sowers chose college over the minor leagues after high school. He also liked the challenge of pitching to batters using aluminum bats instead of wood.

“I feel in three years I’ve gotten as good as I could’ve been in three years of minor league ball,” Sowers said. “I have no regrets. It was easy. It was really easy.”

Sowers first learned to play baseball at age 4 with his twin brother Josh, now a right-handed pitcher at Yale, and their father Jerry in the family’s back yard.

The father’s passion quickly became the sons’ passion.

By high school, getting a hit off Sowers at Ballard High in Louisville, Ky., became a badge of honor for opposing hitters. Sowers threw four career no-hitters with a 0.16 ERA as a junior, and 0.75 ERA as a senior.

A national high school All-American and Mr. Kentucky, pro baseball beckoned with a possible $1 million bonus. Sowers said he preferred to use college as a stepping stone to becoming an adult.

“I’d never been on my own in my life,” he said. “I felt I needed to come here to mature ... from a teen to an adult.”

In the classroom, Sowers studies political science and is doing well at a school known for its emphasis on academics. On the mound, he prides himself on not revealing his emotions.

“That’s part of the no-maintenance type feeling I get from him,” Corbin said. “He’s just one of those kids I don’t have to spend time coaching. He’s an older, mature young man who can take care of business on his own.”

But he also has a sense of humor. When he steps on the field to pitch, his intro music is Boy Meets Girl’s “Waiting for a Star to Fall,” a drippy pop song from the 1980s.

“It’s just corny, and that’s what I love about ‘80s music -- really, really cheesy love songs with cheesy lyrics and cheesy images,” Sowers said. “You get people who kind of look at it and say, ‘Wait a minute. Is this really happening?’ I like letting people know I like that stuff -- kind of for shock value and just to spread the love of music around.”

The Commodores are determined to reach the SEC tournament again -- and maybe more. That’s why Sowers isn’t looking past this season at what his own future holds.

“I’m going to do my best to give Vanderbilt the opportunity to win,” he said. “After that’s done, I can worry about what I want to do.”