Deacon Sports Xtra: Drawn to his Craft
8/12/2021 1:00:00 PM | Baseball
Wake Forest’s budding, right-handed star is crafting masterpieces on and off the mound.
Rhett Lowder was quickly thrown into the fire as a starter just four games into his 2021 freshman campaign. Unsure what his role was going to be with a veteran-ladened pitching staff when he first arrived on campus, Lowder quickly solidified himself as one of Wake Forest’s weekend arms during his rookie season.
From the jump, Lowder was not phased.
Lowder ended his debut campaign with a team-high four wins and the third-most strikeouts (78) by a freshman in program history. Additionally, he now holds the second-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.55) by a Demon Deacon rookie in program history.
Off the Diamond
Lowder’s journey began in Albemarle, N.C., about an hour southeast of Winston-Salem.
He got his introduction to sports thanks to his older brothers, Luke and Will. The trio were “seasonal athletes” as Lowder said. They participated in any sport possible and Lowder first picked up a baseball when he was four but also played football and basketball.
Even though Lowder engaged in many activities as a youngster, he knew one came easier compared to the others.
“I knew I was just better at baseball then all the other ones,” Lowder said. “So, I kept playing. My older brothers ended up not playing (baseball) as much, but I just kept stuck with it. When I was about 16, I kind of knew I wanted to take baseball seriously and to the next level.”
The brotherly influence included many other activities beyond athletics.
Both of his brothers had artistic hobbies as Luke attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem for directing, while Will was involved in painting and drawing from a young age.
“It started just like how I started playing baseball,” Lowder said. “My middle brother, Will, got big into drawing and painting and just like any other younger brother, I wanted to do what he did.”
A little late to the hobby, Lowder described himself as “naturally artistic” and began painting and drawing when he entered high school.
“Freshman year, I took art class and got pretty good at it and realized that I was better than most people so, I just never stopped,” Lowder said. “I just wanted to be better than my brother. So, every semester throughout high school, I took art and ended up getting pretty good.”
Check out some of Lowder's pieces in the slideshow below.
This is so dope, thank you ???? https://t.co/DoubIJ9KKj
— ? Mike ????N??H??N?? Clevinger ? (@MikeClevinger) March 22, 2021
Most Wake Forest fans learned of Lowder’s artistic ability during his start against No. 23 Virginia Tech as the ACC Network shared a segment that included some of his work.
His favorite piece is a painting that is the same height as Lowder that took him a total of two years to complete.
“It's an old man wearing this cloak,” Lowder said. “It is probably six-by-four. It's huge. It took me like two years on and off. I started it right before my junior year, and I worked on it on and off forever until I graduated. So, that's probably my favorite just because it took so long.”
Lowder was also a member of National Honor Society, Beta Club, president of the North Stanly chapter of National Art Honor Society and a member of the Junior Dream team for the Dream on 3 Foundation in high school.
His freshman year in high school was also when Lowder decided to let his hair grow out thanks to some bad experiences at the barber shop.
“Ninth grade is when it finally started to get long enough to where people would notice it,” said Lowder. “I have always kind of just trimmed it since then. It started because I did not like haircuts and I always got bad haircuts. I was just like, ‘That's it. I'm not getting haircuts anymore.’ I just kept growing and trimming it and I thought I was going to get rid of it before I got here (Wake Forest), then COVID happened and I could not really get a haircut. I thought I would show up with it and then it turned into my thing.
“I’m rocking with it now. I’m going to keep it for as long as I can.”
Finding a home in Winston-Salem
Lowder surprisingly found himself right in the heart of Winston-Salem, being introduced to the city during his younger years with trips to Wake Forest Baptist Health Medical Center and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts on visits with Luke.
“I was always familiar with the area and I knew that I wanted to play in the ACC,” Lowder said. “That was my biggest thing. I love Winston-Salem… It was kind of easy to pick Wake Forest as my home since I was close with Winston-Salem my whole life.”
Playing high school ball at North Stanly, Lowder was dominant.
Over his final three seasons, he earned 20 wins with 238 strikeouts and an earned run average hovering around 1.00. But, there was something holding recruiters back.
“I was really skinny, a small kid that never threw hard, even at my level,” said Lowder. “My junior year I was still throwing like 84-86, but just getting people out. I was not an overpowering guy. I never broke 90 until I got to Wake Forest. I had a hard time getting recruited because I did not throw very hard but they were like, ‘you just get people out.’ I think it helped a lot that I learned how to pitch without the overpowering stuff that these other guys have.”
When Lowder arrived at Wake Forest, he joined a 2021 team with one of the hardest-throwing staffs in the entire nation, the Gas House Gang. He did not let the fact that he was unlike the rest of the group have an impact on his work ethic and his attitude toward helping the team.
“That's why coming in, I did not really know what my role was going to be,” Loweder continued. “I did not throw as hard as these other guys, but I still could hang and get outs and throw all these other pitches.”
Since his arrival, Lowder has hit the weight room hard and worked endlessly in Wake Forest’s Pitching Lab inside the Chris Hurd Player Development Center.
The pitching lab is a state-of-the-art facility with cutting edge technology and expert staff that the Demon Deacons use on a daily basis. The biomechanics lab is one of the first of its kind in the United States and integrates the Wake Forest athletic department with the sports medicine experts at Wake Forest Baptist.
Something that hindered him in the past transformed into a huge benefit and something that has helped him be so successful so quickly during his jump to the collegiate level.
Making the move to the weekend
After becoming integrated into the program during the fall semester and going through a rigorous weight training program, the 2021 season finally came around. The Deacons possessed a very experienced staff due to the COVID pandemic, returning almost all of their pitchers from the previous two seasons.
“I wanted to just come in and try to prove myself,” said Lowder. “When it came to the season, my goal was just to help us any way I could because between Shane (Smith) and Tony (Antonio Menendez), we were both going to be healthy at the time.”
After the first game of the season, the Deacs received bad news. Then-Saturday starter Antonio Menendez was going to miss the entire season due to an injury.
The next night, Lowder got his first taste of collegiate baseball, striking out the side in the ninth to secure a 9-0 shutout victory over Northeastern.
Lowder stepped on the bump for his first start just three days later in a midweek, non-conference contest at The Couch against Coastal Carolina.
“When I heard I was going to start against Coastal, I was pretty excited,” Lowder said. “Me and Walt (Coach Walter) talked about being a Tuesday guy occasionally, but I didn't really have any expectations. I went out there, did not know what to expect and just pitched normally. I performed pretty well”
He did indeed perform well. Posting an impressive stat line, Lowder struck out a career-high 10 batters while giving up just two hits and a run in 6.0 innings.
“(Rhett Lowder) can't throw the ball much better than that,” head coach Tom Walter said after the game. “It was super impressive. The command was good. He was throwing three pitches for strikes. He was pitching backwards when he needed to. I could not have been more impressed with his outing. That is about as good as you can throw the baseball."
.@lowderrhett starting debut » ?? K’s x 6?? innings #GoDeacs ?? pic.twitter.com/ew9lPmZmM5
— Wake Forest Baseball (@WakeBaseball) February 24, 2021
Things then pivoted quickly for both the program and Lowder.
Wake Forest split a doubleheader in their series against Notre Dame, picking up a 10-8 win in their first ACC game of the season. In the rubber match the next day, Sunday starter Shane Smith was pulled after seven outs due to an injury. Lowder was the next man out of the bullpen.
Down two important pieces of their rotation, the Deacs made the decision to move Lowder into the weekend rotation. His first opportunity came in Coral Gables, Fla. against the nationally-ranked Miami Hurricanes on March 13.
“Walt told me I was going to start at Miami,” Lowder said. “I was obviously nervous like anybody else would be to make that start. I barely slept, but I knew going out there is probably the best thing for me in the long run. I was excited for it and I felt like I was ready for it.”
The right hander struck out six Hurricane batters while giving up three earned runs in 5.1 innings.
Lowder went on to a start in Wake Forest’s remaining nine ACC series, getting handed the ball each Saturday by the time the season ended.
His best outing in conference play came on the road against No. 5-ranked Louisville. After dropping the first two games of the series, Lowder tossed a seven-scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. Home runs from Adam Cecere (solo), Chris Lanzilli (solo) and Brock Wilken (two-run) lifted the Deacs to a 6-3 victory as Lowder earned his first collegiate victory.
Overall, Lowder finished with one of the best freshman seasons by a Wake Forest pitcher in program history.
The results on the field are no mistake. Lowder has gone through a total transformation since he has joined the program, adding weight and more velocity to his arsenal of pitches.
“This past year of my life has been pretty crazy” Lowder said. “I have probably gained 40 pounds and look totally different. (I can) throw the ball about 10 miles an hour harder. A lot of people would not be able to recognize me if they looked at me now and looked at me in high school.”
“I was always familiar with the area and I knew that I wanted to play in the ACC,” Lowder said. “That was my biggest thing. I love Winston-Salem… It was kind of easy to pick Wake Forest as my home since I was close with Winston-Salem my whole life.”
Lowder traveled to Virginia and joined the Strasburg Express for summer ball.
After taking some time off due to his high-usage in the spring, Lowder was looking to fine tune some of his weaknesses in preparation for his sophomore campaign. In total, he notched 27 strikeouts in 19 innings as a member of the league’s championship squad.
“It was a good experience,” Lowder said. “Getting away from home, living with these guys, pretty much playing baseball every single day, it is all you have. But it was fun. It was different than what I expected because I threw so many innings this year. I was kind of trying to just maintain and get a few more innings under my belt, work on a few things here and there and try to stay healthy.”
On July 15, Lowder joined Wake Forest teammate Crawford Wade and another Express teammate to combine for a no-hitter. In that performance, Lowder started and tossed 10 K's in six innings.
Summer Ball Shoving @lowderrhett ??@22657Express | #GoDeacs ?? pic.twitter.com/J9tuEyVgVR
— Wake Forest Baseball (@WakeBaseball) June 27, 2021
The next step in the evolution
With 67.2 innings under his belt, Lowder knows how to deal with the demands of a long collegiate baseball season and is willing to mentor the incoming freshman or some inexperienced returners as the 2021-22 academic year begins and the 2022 season is on the horizon.
“We know it’s going to be an up and down season,” Lowder said. “It always is for everybody with the roller coaster that college baseball is. I mean it's gonna be tough either way, having some of these challenges out of the way early definitely helps for sure.”
“I was obviously nervous like anybody else would be to make that start. I barely slept, but I knew going out there is probably the best thing for me in the long run. I was excited for it and I felt like I was ready for it.”
“This past year of my life has been pretty crazy” Lowder said. “I have probably gained 40 pounds and look totally different. (I can) throw the ball about 10 miles an hour harder. A lot of people would not be able to recognize me if they looked at me now and looked at me in high school.”
Throughout those highs and lows of his first season, Lowder was able to count on upperclassmen such as 2021 MLB draft picks Ryan Cusick and William Fleming. Heading into the new season, he will take it upon himself to return the favor and take a leadership role in 2022.
“Coming back with some weekends starts under my belt is going to be good for mentoring the other guys, whoever it might be. I’ll definitely be able to help any of the young guys coming in. I'm still trying to battle (for a spot) myself so you know I'm like (Ryan) Cusick was.
“He was the most-focused person on the team for himself, and then if anyone ever had any questions, you could come to him and talk to him forever. I'm definitely open to share what I went through and share some of the knowledge that Cusick and (William) Fleming passed down to me when I was just a freshman.”
Lowder will be ready to work when he returns back to Winston-Salem in a few weeks, looking to make even a bigger jump from year one to year two then he did as a skinny high schooler from Albemarle, N.C.
“This fall is gonna be huge for me,” Lowder said in closing. “I just recently shut down for a few weeks. I’ll start throwing and ramping it back up before we get back to school, but I'm so ready to get back, put some more weight on, hopefully. Maybe I can get a little bit stronger and become a part of the Gas House Gang as their newest member. Me and Mark Seaver (Assistant Director of Sports Performance) are going to be tight, for sure.”
?? ?????? ??. @lowderrhett picks up win no. 4 of the season on Friday afternoon ??#GoDeacs ?? pic.twitter.com/fLYQUrsVGK
— Wake Forest Baseball (@WakeBaseball) May 21, 2021
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