Bowman Taken in the Fifth Round

Lincoln ? Nebraska pitcher Drew Bowman (Morrison, Colo.) became the first Husker selected in the 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, as he was chosen in the fifth round (No. 169 overall) by the Cincinnati Reds Thursday evening.

Bowman is the fifth Husker pitcher taken in the top-five rounds since 2003, joining Joba Chamberlain (1st, 2006), Brian Duensing (3rd, 2005), Aaron Marsden (3rd, 2003) and Zach Kroenke (5th, 2005).

“I didn’t know I was picked until the phone rang,” Bowman said Thursday evening. "Going into today, I didn’t put too many expectations on where I would be picked and was pleasantly surprised when I got the call. I didn’t have much contact with the Reds organization during the season so it was a bit of a surprise they selected me”

Bowman, who was a 21st-round pick out of high school, compiled a 4-1 record and a 4.31 ERA in 14 games this season, posting a 30-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 39.2 innings of work. The 6-foot-3, 190-pound left-hander split time as a starter and a reliever, making eight starts among his 14 appearances after transferring from Arizona State.

Bowman turned in his best performance of the year against No. 11 Wichita State on April 11, holding the Shockers to one run on six hits over 5.2 innings of work in a no-decision. He went a season-high six innings, allowing two hits and striking out four in a combined shutout of Western Illinois on March 21. Bowman also went six innings against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Feb. 23, scattering seven hits and striking out three without a walk in a 9-1 win.

The left-hander said that having gone through the draft process a second time changed his perspective on the event.

“The first time I watched every pick the pick the whole way through,” Bowman said. “This time, I was more willing to watch things happen and not get so caught up in it.”
 
Bowman went 3-1 with a 1.99 ERA in five games last summer for Liberal (Kan.), striking out 27 over 36.1 innings while holding foes to a .173 average in the wood-bat Jayhawk League.

The first five rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft took place Thursday with the remainder of the 50-round draft beginning at 10:30 a.m. (central) on Friday.