Portland's Owens Named Pitcher of the Year

Portland, ME - The Eastern League of Professional Baseball is pleased to announce that Portland Sea Dogs left-handed starting pitcher Henry Owens has been selected as the 2014 Eastern League Pitcher of the Year. The 22-year old kicked off his 2014 season by throwing a rain-shortened, six-inning no-hitter in a 5-0 win at Reading on opening night. Henry went on to start 20 games for the Sea Dogs this season, posting a record of 14-4 with 126 strikeouts and a 2.60 ERA over 121 innings pitched. He did not allow a run in seven of his 20 starts and gave up three runs or less in 16 of those games. Owens was rewarded for his performance in Portland with a promotion on August 1st to Triple-A Pawtucket, where he has a record of 2-1 and a 3.66 ERA in five starts. Owens, who is a native of Huntington Beach, California, was leading the league in wins (14), strikeouts (126), complete games (3), shutouts (2) and batting average against (.201) at the time of his promotion to Triple-A. He was also ranked second in ERA (2.60) and third in WHIP (1.12). Despite not appearing in an Eastern League game since July 29th, Owens still leads the league in wins and strikeouts. The 14 wins by Owens this season are a new single-season franchise record for the Sea Dogs. He also established new franchise records with 27.2 consecutive scoreless innings from May 19th-June 14th and nine straight wins from May 24th-July 19th. Henry was also with Portland for his final six starts of the 2013 season, and now has a franchise-record ERA of 2.44 in 26 career appearances in Portland.

In addition to winning this award the 6'6", 205 lb. hurler was also selected as the left-handed starting pitcher on the recently announced Eastern League All-Star Team. Owens was also named to the Eastern Division roster for the 2014 Eastern League All-Star Game and threw a scoreless inning as the starting pitcher for the US Team at the MLB Futures Game in Minnesota. He was also selected as the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week for the period of April 3rd-13th.

Henry, who is rated by MLB.com as the second best prospect in the Red Sox organization, was selected by the Boston Red Sox with the 36th overall pick in the first round of the 2011 draft out of Edison High School in Huntington Beach, California.

Portland left-handed starter Brian Johnson finished second in the voting for the award and Altoona right-handed starter Adrian Sampson finished in third place. This award was voted on by Eastern League managers and media members.