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Tiger Den: Kyle McGowin, the template of a baseball champion

By: By Joshua Peacock
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Baseball | 9/2/2020 3:33:00 PM

Kyle McGowin has two championship rings.
 
SETTING THE TONE
 
McGowin led Savannah State to its first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title in 2013. Last year, McGowin pitched in seven games for the Washington Nationals during the regular season helping his team en route to a World Series Championship title. During his eight years in Minor League Baseball (MiLB), after being drafted in 2013 by the Los Angeles Angels, McGowin became a star and a starting pitcher. 
 
Out of high-school though, the Sag Harbor, New York native, was not heavily recruited. He had five pitches in his quiver and good size at 6-3, but he was, by his own admission, not a hard thrower.
 
However, Savannah State Head Baseball Coach Carlton Hardy, now into his 14th season, saw potential where others did not. He saw a hard worker and he liked McGowin's delivery. Hardy knew that given the right college situation, he could be a major threat on the mound.
 
In 2011, Hardy recruited McGowin to pitch for Savannah State.
 
"Coach Hardy gave me an opportunity and I ran with it," McGowin said from the Washington Nationals' alternate training facility in Fredericksburg, Va. "I was able to grow and change into who I am now. I am always thankful for Coach Hardy."
 
Hardy and Pitching Coach Blake Miller worked with McGowin over his freshman and sophomore years. They took him down to three pitches, a fastball, a slider and a changeup. Hardy wanted to focus on strengthening the tools McGowin already had, but Hardy admits, "it's a lot of things that he did."
 
The galvanizing moment came between his sophomore and junior years. During the 2012 and 2013 seasons, McGowin played summer ball in the Hampton Leagues, and according to Hardy, something clicked in him that particular summer. 
 
"He came back his junior year with a better mentality," Hardy recalled. "He could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think he saw that he could possibly have a future in this game based on what he did his sophomore year here. When he came back, I could see the growth of his first two years here had finally manifested itself and he just took off from there."
 
Ahead of the 2013 season, Hardy knew he had the pitching and the hitting to make a run at the MEAC Championship. Over the course of eight MEAC regular season conference three-game series, Hardy developed a plan centered around McGowin.
 
During the opening game of the series, McGowin would pitch. Hardy knew if he could get a win to open the series, the rest of the pitchers and his staff would follow that lead. McGowin was 6-2 when opening three-game weekend MEAC series during the 2013 championship run. The team finished the regular season 17-7 in conference play.
 
"Kyle gave us an opportunity every time he took the mound," Hardy said. "He set the tone for us. He set the tone for our staff. He was just dominate."
 
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THE SHOW
 
During his first three years in MiLB, McGowin excelled, but faced hurdles as well. For four years he worked his way through Los Angeles' minor league teams, reaching Triple A in 2016 before being traded to the Nationals in 2017. He never saw a major league debut with the team that drafted him.
 
"You're always going to have ups and downs," McGowin said. "In the beginning of my career, every time I had a down I went down with it as opposed to thinking ok, this is just a challenge, how I am going to better myself. When I turned it all around is when every time I had a negative I just tried to find positives within the negatives and then use those towards progressing."
 
During the 2018 season, playing for the Grizzlies, he went 8-6 and then one day, he got the call he'd been waiting on. He was going to The Show. The first thing he did was call his parents and then he called the college coach who gave him a chance.
 
"One thing about Kyle which I appreciate is that every year since he was drafted, he always comes back and plays in our alumni game," Hardy said. "I look at it like kids show up on your campus and you always want to know that they appreciate their time here."
 
STARTING ROLE 
 
McGowin is a starter. He was a starter for Savannah State and he a started in the Minor Leagues. It's where he feels the most comfortable. He likes the challenge. The pressure.
 
On September 26, 2018, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., McGowin earned his first Major League start. He had four outings before this one, but not a start. He was nervous. He felt like he hadn't had a proper debut yet and this was his chance to showcase the hard work he's spent his life putting into his career.
 
"That first day when I started, I was probably more nervous than any other outings," McGwoin recalled. "Just because I was finally starting, this is what I do, this is where I excel, so I wanted to be where I am."
 
McGowin put on a show. He retired 11 batters through four innings with four strikeouts. Then a blister crept up on his throwing hand and he was pulled from the game.
 
"I was cruising then I hit a wall," McGowin recalled. "I got the whole blister problem. I was no-hitting them and had to come out because of that, so it kind of screwed all of that up. But I was relieved to get the first one out of the way, start wise, and have it be a really good one."
 
He learned from the 2013 MEAC Championship game that the best thing to do with the pressure is to just breath. "That's all you can do. Breath and trust yourself. Just be yourself and try not to too much and try and give your team a chance," he opined.
 
After his Major League debut in 2018, McGowin again struggled and was sent back to MiLB to continue training and developing. He returned to the Nationals roster in 2019, pitching seven games to become a member of the 2019 World Series Championship team.
 
"We started off 19-31 in 2019 and I started the game that we turned it all around," McGowin said. "We weren't doing to good, but we rallied and turned it around. After that the team was just on a tear. October came around and all that good stuff. It was pretty wild to see all that. And then to get the ring, it was pretty sweet."
 
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UNDER PRESSURE
 
Savannah State prepared McGowin for his journey through professional baseball and those pivotal moments when he was under pressure.
 
On May 19, 2013 on Marty Miller Field in Norfolk, Virginia, the Tigers had one more obstacle between them and a title, MEAC perennial powerhouse Bethune-Cookman. During the regular season, Savannah State went 3-2 against Cookman. That year, Savannah State and Bethune-Cookman were firm rivals.
 
The Tigers cruised through the opening rounds of the MEAC Championship, beating Maryland Eastern Shore 3-1, Norfolk State 21-11, and Coppin State 14-7. But Cookman was another beast.
 
McGowin started the game and through nine scoreless innings, kept his aplomb. Cookman put on a runner in the top of the 9th with two outs and McGowin responded by striking out the next batter. He then retired the first three batters to open the 10th inning. Setting up his team for victory.
 
With one out, in the bottom of the 10th, Darien Campbell doubled, putting Savannah State two bases from a championship. Todd Hagen followed with a single to push Campbell to third and close the gap between the Tigers and a title. A sacrifice fly from Peter Poole scored Campbell and sealed up the win for Savannah State.
 
McGowin pitched 10 full innings, picking up his 12th win of the season, striking out 11 batters and only walking two. He faced the pressure and responded.
 
"You have to go about your business," McGowin said. "For me, it's always been about being confident and telling myself I am better than the next. Not necessarily going out and being a jerk, but portraying that you're better than everyone else."
 
In the other dugout during that championship bout was Montana DuRapau, one of Cookman's starters. DuRapau pitched 8-0 scoreless innings for the Wildcats with four strikeouts and one walk in the MEAC title game. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2014 and made his MLB debut in 2019.
 
On August 9, 2019, McGowin and DuRapau met again. This time, under the lights of a Major League Baseball park. McGowin pitched one inning in the Nationals 13-0 win over Pittsburgh on Aug. 9. DuRapau pitched 4.0 innings for the Pirates.
 
"We won that game too," McGowin said with a laugh. "It's a small world."
 
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ONE MONTH
 
McGowin is still in training. In August, he was about to make his way to D.C. Since Minor League Baseball was cancelled this fall, Major League teams started taxi teams, a group of three to four players that travel with the team as relievers. His role with the Nationals now is a reliever. Which is not the role he's used to, but one he's adapting to.
 
"As a starter, I would always give myself a goal, whether it was six shutout innings today, or whatever it would be. I would challenge myself because it would give me something to focus on in the game other than winning.
 
"I always thrived off competition within the competition. Now that I am reliever, I am trying to learn a new role. Following what I've seen in the past from other closers like Rivera, I just watch how they go about their business and try to implement that into my career. It's kind of like college, in the MEAC Championship, all of that pressure—it's win the game or you're done. I loved it."

On Sept. 5, 2020, McGowin earned his first MLB pitching win in a 10-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves. McGowin pitched 2.1 innings of nearly flawless relief, allowing no hits, no runs with one walk and four strikeouts.
 
Savannah State set McGowin up for life as a professional and that is how Hardy has approached the student-athletes in his program going on two decades.
 
"Part of my recruiting pitch is that if you stick with me for the duration of your college career, you'll leave the program and become a professional," Hardy said. "Whether a professional on the field or a professional in your field of study.
 
"Kyle is one of numerous young men that are not from the area that he still comes down and he still checks in on us. Mom and Dad still check in on us. He makes a donation to the program every year. He's one of the guys, even though he became a star, he actually gave back and is still giving back."
 
McGowin has two championship rings and one is a little bigger than the other.
 
"The World Series ring is sick. It's massive," McGowin said with a laugh.
 
 
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