Serra soph shines in debut

Dowd was electric, scattering a walk and an infield single amid five strikeouts through two innings of work. His fastball was fueled with sharp downward bite. He was throwing darts with a big-breaking curveball. And he breezed through the middle of the Carlmont batting order — facing batters 9 through 7 — to the tune of 33 pitches.

“It was good,” Dowd said. “I was excited, a little nervous, but that was out of the door after the first pitch. My pitches were working. I was just attacking guys and had confidence. It worked out.”

Serra hasn’t carried a sophomore on its varsity roster since 2014, when third baseman Angelo Bortolin and pitcher John Besse both made the varsity cut. Dowd said he was surprised when he learned he was being bumped up to the varsity squad following last Tuesday’s junior-varsity outing, an 11-strikeout performance against the St. Francis JV team to move the JV Padres into first place.

“Definitely not (expecting it),” Dowd said. “I was thinking about getting the job done against St. Francis. It’s one of the biggest games of the year. So, it wasn’t on my mind at all. I was thinking of … JV Valley [Tuesday]. So, this was all new to me.”

Bob Sargent — a well-travelled local baseball coach who last served as a varsity assistant at Carlmont — is in his first year as the head coach of Serra’s JV team. It was Sargent who lobbied for Dowd’s promotion, citing two reasons. The first, Serra’s JV squad is loaded with pitching talent. The second, Dowd had nothing left to prove in the JV ranks, according to Sargent.

“The idea for him is just get your feet wet and get that varsity debut,” Serra manager Chris Houle said. “And we were fortunate to be in a position to do it with him [Saturday].”

Dowd enjoyed several big performances with the JV squad this season. At the top of the highlight reel was when he fired six innings to combine on an eight-inning no-hitter against Sacred Heart Cathedral. Dowd struck out 16 through six innings before reaching the pitch limit — 90 pitches is the JV limit, as opposed to 110 at varsity — with Cava Milo working the last two innings to earn the win and preserve the no-no.

Even before his dazzling stuff became apparent within the first varsity batter he faced — a swinging strikeout of Carlmont pinch-hitter Ryan Busser — Dowd already looked the part, impressing with stellar mechanics. He possesses a big, sweeping motion that Sargent likened to former big league All-Star with the Seattle Mariners and California Angels, Mark Langston. What’s unique about Dowd’s mechanics is how he accelerates through his throwing motion, making an already impressive fastball get on hitters that much quicker.

“It sort of developed over time,” Dowd said of his fluid mechanics. “I’ve always had kind of a quick arm action. But I’ve been more explosive over the last year from freshman to JV, over the summer I started to develop more lower-half movement to get more velocity.”