 | Josh Sowers |
Yale pitcher drafted by Blue Jays
Josh Sowers, who graduated from Yale College in May, was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft.
Sowers, who was taken in the 10th round as the 296th overall pick, was the 2005 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, went 6-1 and led the league with a 2.10 ERA. He pitched 60 innings, walking just 11 batters and winning six straight starts. The Louisville, Kentucky, native finished his Bulldog career with 16 wins, 13 complete games and 208 strikeouts.
The righthander twice earned recognition from the conference during the 2005 season. He was named Ivy League Co-Pitcher of the Week after shutting out Sacred Heart with an 11-strikeout, one-hit performance. He was later named Pitcher of the Week after striking out eight in a three-hit shutout of Penn. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named Sowers as its 2005 District I Player of the Year.
Sowers is the 20th Yale player to be drafted or to sign with a major-league team in the 13-year tenure of head coach John Stuper. Nineteen Yale graduates have played in the major leagues.
Sowers joins lefthanded twin brother, Jeremy, as a professional baseball player. Jeremy Sowers was drafted and signed by the Cleveland Indians after last season, his junior year at Vanderbilt.
In the past month, the Yale lightweight varsity eight has tasted both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
The Elis captured a national title for the third time in six years by finishing first in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Regatta in Camden, New Jersey. The men's crew won its preliminary heat to gain a berth in the final and won the final heat by defeating Cornell, Penn, Harvard, Georgetown and Navy.
"Leading wire-to-wire in our league in a championship race is almost unheard of," said Yale head coach Andy Card. "We had been rowed down three times by Harvard going into the IRA. I guess we just got tired of that old script." It was Card's fourth national championship at Yale, having captured the IRAs in 1990, 2000 and 2002.
The team then traveled to England to compete in the Henley Royal Regatta championship, the most famous of the international rowing events on the Thames River in London. The Elis made it to the finals of the Temple Cup Challenge before falling on July 3 to the heavyweight crew from Trinity College (Hartford) by three lengths.
After the loss, while conceding that the team members were "licking our wounds," Card noted, "There have only been three lightweight crews to make the Temple Challenge Cup final and two of them have been Yale boats. I'm really proud of our effort. It's a hard event to win as a lightweight crew but we went 4-1."
Yale and Army first met 112 years ago and more than half of the 45 contests pitted two squads looking to establish national prominence.
The historic football rivalry will be renewed when the Bulldogs travel to West Point's Michie Stadium on Oct. 2, 2010, and Sept. 29, 2012. It is possible that the Cadets will come to the renovated Yale Bowl at some point after.
"The Yale-Army series has a glamorous tradition and we are thrilled to have it back," says Tom Beckett, director of Yale Athletics. "This renewal is great for both schools and for college football. The opportunity to play Army at West Point will be an incredible experience for our students and fans. As we look to expand this series, we are hopeful the Cadets will visit our venerable Yale Bowl."
Yale defeated Army 28-0 in 1893 in the first meeting, which was also the first of 20 straight games that the Cadets hosted the Bulldogs. The Elis, 21-16-8 overall in the series, enjoyed the early dominance (7-0-3) while the Black Knights have had the upper hand (11-3-2) most recently. Army took the last meeting, 39-13, in 1996 at Michie Stadium but has not been to Yale Bowl since 1988 (33-18 Cadets).
The rivalry has included three Heisman Trophy winners (Yale's Clint Frank and Larry Kelley, Army's Glenn Davis), Albie Booth's performance scoring every point in a 21-13 Bulldog win in 1929 and Yale Bowl crowds averaging better than 70,000.
Kevin Anderson, Army's director of athletics, says: "One of the Academy's main reasons for departing Conference USA was to gain flexibility in scheduling so we could return to playing some of our longtime rivals, both on a regional and national level. There are few football series with more historic value for those at West Point than our relationship with Yale."
Beckett adds, "Army and Yale are producing future leaders of our nation. Bringing these schools together on the field of competition is what college athletics is all about."
T H I S
Spotlight on Sports
Varsity eight goes distance for national title
Army returns to Bulldogs' football schedule
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale launches program to train urban teachers
New alumni fellow elected
Sensors won't save lives from suicide bombers, warns Yale expert
Study: Monkeys ape humans' economic traits
Richard Shaw departs for Stanford post
Tennis goes co-ed at this year's Pilot Pen
Yale co-sponsors 'City of Summer' concerts and films
Exhibit features post-Civil War works by 'artful storyteller'
Yale alumni, teachers win Tony Awards
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Philosopher Keith DeRose: Allison Foundation Chair
Phyllis Granoff: Hixon Chair in World Religions
Thomas Kavanagh: Street Professor of French
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Crown Chair in ManagementLaw School project exploring the information society . . .
Poll shows public's distaste with foreign oil dependence
Scientists discover how plants protect themselves from infection
Team seeking 'perfume' to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes
Geologists use ancient sea algae to trace CO2 levels of long ago
Study shows how sex discrimination in job hiring is able to endure
YSN study shows effectiveness of preschool health screenings
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWSTeam to develop new system for testing potential vaccines
Senior citizens' television-watching habits affect their views . . .
Grant funds study of intestinal condition common in tiny babies
Yale center joins with Bike Across America to raise funds . . .
Alzheimer's disease patients sought for testing . . .
Scientists' discovery of protein amplification in melanoma . . .
Discovery of breast cancer growth regulator may help . . .
Patients disfigured by facial trauma suffer host of problems
Study shows how sex discrimination in job hiring is able to endure
New studies aim to benefit women's health
Study links an inherited pain disorder to specific gene mutation
Spotlight on Sports
Athletics archive now in library's collection
Three promoted to post of associate provost
Event to explore role of faith in the corporate world
In Memoriam: Dick Wittink, marketing expert and SOM teacher
Five faculty members awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for research
Event explored how libraries can benefit city schools
New alumni lauded for efforts to improve public schools
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
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