Michigan Hires Lowery as Assistant Baseball Coach
6/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
"I'm excited to have John Lowery, my top assistant at Ball State, come with me to Michigan," said Maloney, who was hired May 31. "John is an outstanding pitching coach who has been extremely loyal. He will do a great job with the pitching staff here and he has the same belief and vision that I have for the Michigan baseball program."
Lowery heads to Michigan after eight seasons at Ball State, including the last seven under Maloney. At Ball State Lowery had at least one pitcher drafted in each of the last seven years, including two-time Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year Bryan Bullington, the first pick of the MLB draft earlier this month.
Lowery coached three first-round draft picks at Ball State: Jeff Urban (San Francisco, 1998), Luke Hagerty (Chicago Cubs, 2002) and Bullington (Pittsburgh).
Ball State pitchers earned All-MAC honors 18 times in Lowery's eight seasons, with 14 coming in the past five seasons. Three Cardinal pitchers earned all-conference honors this season and Bullington also was named an All-American.
While Lowery was at Ball State the Cardinals captured a pair of MAC championships (1998 and 2001) and finished first in the MAC West four straight seasons (1998-2001). Ball State was 34-23 in 2002, finished second in the MAC West and placed second in the MAC Championship Tournament, losing to Kent State in the finals.
Lowery was the West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year in 1988 at Jefferson High School in Shenandoah Junction, W.Va., and he earned four letters at Minnesota (1989-92).
While at Minnesota the left-handed Lowery set Golden Gopher career records (since broken) for wins (26), appearances (77) and innings pitched (276), and he fanned 192 batters to rank seventh at the close of his career. His 24 appearances in 1991 tied Minnesota's single-season mark.
Lowery earned a B.S. in kinesiology at Minnesota in 1992 and he played professional baseball in the San Francisco organization for Clinton in the Midwest League following his graduation.
Lowery served as pitching coach at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., in the 1993-94 school year and served as pitching coach for the Minneapolis Loons in the Prairie League in the summer of 1994. He was an assistant at Ohio University in the fall of 1994 before accepting the assistant position at Ball State in January of 1995.
Lowery, 32, is married to the former Tricia Shickle and they have three children.
Lowery Notes: Minnesota was 146-94-2 in Lowery's four seasons (1989-92), placing second in the Big Ten three times (1990-91-92) and winning the 1992 Big Ten Tournament in Columbus, Ohio ... Minnesota was 8-7 in 15 games vs. Michigan in Lowery's four seasons and 3-2 in games that he appeared ...Lowery was 3-0 with three complete games in his three career starts vs. Michigan, including a one-hitter on April 12, 1992, with Scott Winterlee's RBI single in the fourth inning the only hit in the 4-1 win in Michigan's Ray Fisher Stadium ... Lowery had a 2.05 ERA vs. Michigan (five earned runs in 22 innings).
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
