Haden Dow completes journey from percieved reliver to Redhawk ace

One conversation between friends led to Haden Dow's arrival at Southeast Missouri State.

Two seasons later, Dow cements his status as the Redhawks ace in his final career start at Capaha field.

Dow stifled the Skyhawks through 6.1 innings, allowing one run on four hits with three strikeouts in the Redhawks' 3-2 win over UT Martin on Thursday, May 16, at Capaha Field.

With the win, the Redhawks (29-24, 16-9) enter the final two games of the season one game behind Little Rock for the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship.

"It's getting towards the end here and we're in a position where every game matters right now," Dow said. "Definitely nice to win a close one at home and it sets us up good for the rest of the weekend."

Dow ranked among the top ten in the Ohio Valley Conference in ERA (4.54), innings pitched (73.1), and leads the league in starts (15).

"All he's done since he stepped foot on campus is get great grades, graduate, be a good human, be a leader, work hard," SEMO head coach Andy Sawyers said. "He's throwing harder now than he ever has. He's been a very consistent worker and a very consistent human. You know that cliche about if you get one percent better each day you look up in like a year and you're a lot better? That's Haden."

Before coming to SEMO, Dow played at Cloud County Community College for head coach Eric Gilliland, who just recently won his 250th career game. After a 2022 season in which he went 3-2 with a 6.34 ERA and struck out 48 batters in 38.1 innings over 12 appearances, he was about to make the jump to Division II after not receiving any interest from any Division I school.

That's when Gilliland called Sawyers.

"My buddy called me and said, 'Man, I've got a left-hander that's starting to get better. Would you have any need for a left-hander?' Actually, I would. I would take a changeup left-hander to fill a role in the bullpen," Sawyers said. "He's like, 'I got a guy. He's your type of human. He's tough and he's competitive and he's a great kid.'"

Sawyers has built his program at SEMO based on a network of relationships with junior college coaches. Dow found a DI home because of those relationships and it paid off.

"We made the decision to take Haden Dow inside of about a 90-second phone conversation with a friend of mine and basically took him because we know who he played for and when that man vouches for someone and says they're a great human," Sawyers said. "We kind of took Hayden based on his character and his references more than anything than we thought he was going to do as a starting pitcher. We thought he was going to be a reliever."

Dow was a starting pitcher throughout his time with the Redhawks. Last year, he was mainly a Sunday starter who recorded a 4.55 ERA, fifth lowest in the OVC, with 51 strikeouts in 63.1 innings pitched over 14 starts.

This season, he's been the Friday starter from the start.

"Last year's Friday guy, Noah Niznik, was really good for us. He kind of had that Friday spot on lockdown and I just fit better last year with last year's staff on Sunday," Dow said. "This year, I guess I kind of become our guy to go Game 1."

The Redhawks are 9-6 in games Dow starts this season and are in good shape for the OVC Tournament next week with him on the mound.

"All the credit for his development goes to him and his very mature professional way of going about his business," Sawyers said. "He has just steadily turned himself into a really nice college starter."

The OVC Tournament begins on May 22, at Marion, Ill. As it stands, SEMO will likely enter as the No. 2 seed and will play on Thursday, May 23.