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St. Henry's Evan Bowers, seated center, signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to pitch for Defiance College. Seated with him are his parents, Erica and Jim, and standing are his sister Kendall and brothers Jase and Mason.
ST. HENRY - St. Henry senior Evan Bowers signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to pitch for the Defiance College baseball team.
Bowers, who is deciding between middle school education and business management for his major, opted for Defiance over Ohio Christian.
He said he had been considering basketball - in which he is averaging nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds a game - but the last couple years convinced him to invest his time in baseball.
"I played for the Classics (club team Dayton Classics) this summer and really enjoyed it," he said. "Last couple years, I've been enjoying it a lot. With that state run we made last year, (baseball) kind of took over. Baseball was what I wanted to keep doing."
Bowers is the fourth St. Henry player this offseason to announce plans to play on the next level, and the second to go with Defiance after Devin Delzeith made his commitment on Jan. 18. Centerfielder Tyler Dehan, another Redskins alum, is entering his junior year with the Yellow Jackets this spring.
"Having Devin there is going to be a good opportunity to play with one of my friends that I've grown up with my whole life," Bowers said. "I would say that was a factor with it."
Last season, Bowers earned second-team All-Midwest Athletic Conference honors with a 2.63 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP in 32 innings. He struck out 21 batters, walked 27 and went 6-1, and the Redskins won the MAC and made a run to the state semifinals.
"I think his challenge sometimes is his competitiveness," St. Henry coach Mike Gast said. "He wants things to be so right all the time. Last year he started to grow there. He had a really good summer last year, and so far, he's working on trying a couple new pitches in January and February. He wants things to be better than where they're at right now, but he's shown a lot of maturity in that regard."
Gast said Bowers is throwing around 80 miles per hour with good control, and noted that he added a slider last summer.
"Eighty with a couple of pretty good off-speed pitches certainly makes for an effective pitcher at our level, and hopefully he'll continue to develop some velocity when he's at Defiance," Gast said. "He's a big kid. They can project a few more miles an hour, I'm sure."
With one more season at St. Henry, Bowers is hoping to build off the positives of last year.
"Just continue having fun with my friends, and have another good baseball season," he said.
