Micah Owings

Micah Burton Owings is a right-handed pitcher who plays professional baseball. The American attended the Forsyth Central High School for his first two years before moving to Gainesville High School for his Junior and Senior years.

Owings graduated from high school with 69 home runs to his name as well as the high school record for most homers in the state of Georgia. His record is also the fourth highest in the United States, behind Drew Henson, Jeff Clement and James Peterson. In his sophomore year, Owings had an incredible .630 batting average as he hammered 21 home runs. In his senior year, his batting average dropped to .448 but he had 25 home runs while pitching 12-1 with a 1.03 ERA. Owings pitched 75 innings and had 121 strikeouts with 3 walks only.

Owings went on to study at Georgia Tech in 2003. For two seasons, he played at the collegiate level with Georgia Tech before moving to Tulane University. His move to go to college came after he had a stint with the MLB Draft in 2002. The Colorado Rockies picked the high school star at 50th overall but Owings decided to go for college instead.

In the following year, he again declared for the draft but was picked in the 19th round by the Chicago Cubs. Again, Owings made the same decision. After three seasons of collegiate baseball, Owings went for the 2005 MLB Draft and this time, he was picked at 83rd overall, by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Owings finally signed up with the Diamondbacks and was sent down to play with the Lancaster JetHawks in the A-League. He was played in 16 games and each time, Owings came out of the bullpen. He had a 1 – 1 record with a 2.45 ERA. Soon he was in the AA-League with the Tennessee Smokies where he started 12 games and had a 6 – 2 record with his 2.88 ERA.

In the AAA-League, he played with the Tucson Sidewinders where he had a 10-0 record in 15 starts. His ERA was at 3.75 for his tenure with the team. In 2007, he made his debut with Diamondbacks against the Washington Nationals in April. Owings was brilliant as he pitched five shutout innings and gave away just 1 hit while getting 6 struck out.

Randy Johnson, the regular starter, was injured and Owings had been called into the team as his replacement. Owings shone through and soon was living up to his reputations. He got his first home run against the Florida Marlins. Owings came into his own in August when, on a trip to the Atlanta Braves, he pitched and batted wonderfully.

Owings was on the mound for 7 innings giving away just 3 hits and 3 ERA while sending 7 back in strikeouts. However, it was his batting that made him famous as he hit 4 out of 5 times with 2-home runs in the process of scoring 4 runs with 6 RBI. He became the first pitcher in the history of the game to have these stats.

In September, after an initial struggle to get his rhythm going, Owings got into his stride and had his first complete game shutout against the San Francisco Giants. Giving away just two hits, Owings quickly showed why he was picked as a starting pitcher.

Owings batted at .333 in the season and this was the 4th highest batting average for all pitchers with more than 50 at-bats in the league. His wonderful performance won him the Silver Slugger award for 2007. On days when Owings was not used as a pitcher, the team considered playing him at first base to use his batting prowess. In April, 2008, Owings hit the first pinch-hitting home run since April, 2004.

In August 2008, the Cincinnati Reds decided to bring Owings in, along with Wilkin Castillo and Dallas Buck, in exchange for Adam Dunn. The very next day, for the Reds, Owings pinch hit an RBI double in the 10th inning to beat the Diamondbacks.