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Rowe pilots Ashland into playoffs Mail Tribune / Andrew Mariman Ashland's Bill Rowe takes some cuts during a recent practice. Rowe will lead his team into today's American Legion playoff game. By DON HUNT ASHLAND - Bill Rowe would be the first to admit that he's feasted on a lot of young pitchers while playing baseball for the Ashland Pilots this summer. Even so, Rowe's statistics would be impressive if he were facing 50-year-old men with tendinitis and torn rotator cuffs. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Rowe has registered nine home runs, 18 doubles, three triples and 49 RBIs while batting .571 for the Pilots, who have posted a 25-2-1 record in American Legion, A division play. The Ashland squad meets Roseburg Pepsi at 5 p.m. today at North Mountain Park in the first game of a three-game playoff series. The second game is set for Friday at 7 in Roseburg with a third game, if necessary, to be played Saturday at 5 at North Mountain Park. The winner of the series advances to the state tournament Aug. 8-13 in Portland. Rowe has been a solid player for the Ashland High school team the past two years and helped the Grizzlies to their first-ever Southern Oregon Conference championship last spring. But he's stepped things up several notches this summer, putting up huge numbers offensively while also blossoming into the Pilots' top pitcher with a 7-0 record and 1.80 earned run average. "I've basically just tried to be selective and wait for the pitchers to mess up," says Rowe, who plays first base when he's not pitching. "Some of the pitchers at this level aren't as good as what you see in high school, although I think I'm hitting the ball better, anyway. "I'm not trying to hit everything out of the ballpark. I'm just making contact and trying to drive the ball hard." Rowe pitched only a handful of innings for the high school team but Pilots coach Josh Hamik talked him into being a full-time workhorse on the mound this summer. "He's always thought that pitching would take away from his hitting, but he's learning he can do both equally well," says Hamik, who coaches the Ashland High freshman squad in the spring. "He's left-handed, he's big and he's always had a live arm. "I'm not surprised at what he's done." Rowe and teammate Mike Allen attended a baseball camp earlier this summer at Stanford University. The three-day clinic incorporated sessions on hitting and pitching and featured coaches from throughout the country, Rowe says. "We went for five hours each day," he says. "It was an awesome camp." Rowe undoubtedly gets a good portion of his athletic ability from his father, Doug, who advanced to the semi-pro level during his playing days. Doug Rowe is better known for his career as an actor, however. The elder Rowe is a regular performer at the Ashland Shakespearean Festival and recently returned from Hollywood after appearing in several episodes of Providence that will air this fall. Tired of fighting rush-hour traffic in L.A. and uneasy about not having steady work, Doug Rowe moved his family to Ashland after landing the lead role in Death of a Salesman at the Festival. The lead roles on the Pilots, meanwhile, are being played by Bill Rowe, Titus Weston, Ryan Decker, Charles Dotterrer and Allen. They are the cornerstones of a talented group of players who will be seniors in the fall. The group went 18-2 as freshman and 18-8 last spring when the Grizzlies made their first-ever state playoff appearance. "It's a great bunch of kids," Hamik says. "They're blazing a trail in Ashland baseball that other kids will hopefully follow." The Pilots have beaten Roseburg Pepsi in their only two meetings this season, winning by 10 runs in one game but needing 10 innings to win the other. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.