Cunningham, Mowry Join Rivets Fresh off Dream Runs to Omaha

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Cunningham, Mowry Join Rivets Fresh off Dream Runs to Omaha

July 3, 2025 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Rockford Rivets News Release


ROCKFORD, Ill. - Ask most young baseball players, and they'll likely tell you they have two dreams.

One, of course, is to one day get that life-changing call up to The Show and become a major league baseball player. The other? Omaha. The College World Series. A chance to compete against the best of the best in the college game on a stage and at a venue that's become second to none in the baseball world.

Walking onto Charles Schwab Field - the mecca of college baseball - with 24,000 seats and 75 years of history surrounding the diamond that hosts the biggest games in all of college baseball is a moment very few players ever get the chance to experience. But two current Rockford Rivets - as freshmen, no less - just did.

Conner Cunningham and Collin Mowry achieved one of the loftiest dreams of their entire baseball careers when their respective teams, Cinderella story Murray State and traditional powerhouse Louisville, got all the way to the sport's grandest stage.

Before the action even began, each team got a chance to step foot on the famous grass and soak it all in. Very few ever get the opportunity to take those steps out of the dugout and etch their name in the decades of college baseball lore it comes with. Just a year removed from finishing up their final high school seasons, both were now standing on one of the sport's most iconic stages.

"It didn't feel real," said Cunningham, whose Murray State team took the college baseball world by storm with their magical run to the College World Series. "It was surreal. I watched it all the time as a kid on TV and now, walking into the stadium the day before for the first time, it didn't feel real."

Cunningham's path to Omaha was one he couldn't have possibly imagined, even in his wildest ambitions.

The summer before his senior year of high school, Cunningham was playing in a travel tournament in Atlanta. Murray State head coach Dan Skirka looked on as Cunningham had what he called one of the worst nights he had that entire summer.

0-for-3. Three groundouts. Two errors at shortstop for the otherwise surehanded fielder. Despite it all, Skirka came up to him after the game and offered him a chance to play for the Racers. One visit and Cunningham was sold. He showed up the next fall ready to compete for a spot on the infield.

At no point during the process did a chance to play in Omaha even cross his mind. That's not something a place like Murray State - who plays in a worn-down, 800-seat ballpark and had only even made the NCAA Tournament three times before 2025 - uses in its recruiting pitch. All he wanted was a place where he felt he could develop and have the chance to play immediately - which he did at shortstop, ultimately winning Co-Freshman of the Year in the Missouri Valley.

"You commit to a place like Murray State and you don't think you're going to go to Omaha," Cunningham said. "To be there is an experience I'll never forget."

For a while, making it all the way to the College World Series wasn't even on Cunningham's radar - nor anybody else's. The Racers had a good regular season, finishing in a tie for first in the Missouri Valley and earning the number one seed in the conference's tournament, which they went on to win.

But it wasn't until the team saw its regional draw - a showdown with top 15 Ole Miss in Oxford - that the reality began to set in for him and his Murray State teammates. They had faced the Rebels earlier in the season and fell in heartbreaking fashion, 8-7 in 10 innings despite holding a ninth inning lead. But that early season midweek memory reminded them that even as the lowest-ranked team in their region, they belonged on the field with the best of them all. They ended up proving it by beating both Ole Miss and Georgia Tech to reach the doorstep of their dreams.

"We knew we could compete with those guys," Cunningham said. "Once we went into their place and beat them the first time, then beat Georgia Tech, we were like 'Oh wow, we have a chance to make it all the way to Omaha right now.'"

And that they did, taking down the Rebels two out of three times in total - including a 12-11 elimination game thriller that nearly saw their 12-3 lead evaporate - before staving off elimination twice more against Duke to complete one of the most improbable runs to the College World Series in recent college baseball history. Murray State became just the fourth No. 4 seed ever to make it all the way to Omaha.

The Racers' storybook season ended abruptly after just two games at the Big Dance, thanks in large part to one of the greatest College World Series pitching performances of all time by Arkansas phenom Gage Wood. Cunningham is actually close with Wood - having played at the same high school and trained with him in the offseason - and could only throw his hands up when describing the no-hit, 19-strikeout performance that ended his team's run.

"All I can say is his fastball is electric," Cunningham said with a smile.

Mowry's path was a little bit different. Ranked as a top 10 catcher nationally in his class, he had no shortage of options when it came time to choose his college destination. Ultimately, he settled on Louisville, a program that has made the College World Series now five times since 2013, in large part because of the chance to do that very thing.

"Louisville goes to Omaha," Mowry said. "That was definitely a big part of why I went there. I wanted to be a part of that."

That doesn't mean it was easy for Mowry and his team, though. Far from it, actually. The Cardinals lost five of their final six games to close the regular season and finished conference play just 15-15, earning them the 10 seed in the ACC Tournament. They were eliminated by 15-seeded Pitt in the first round.

That didn't leave a whole lot of external hope entering the Nashville Regional of the NCAA Tournament, staring down number one overall seeded Vanderbilt in their home ballpark. Inside the dugout, however, the belief never wavered from all the way back on Opening Day.

"From the beginning, I knew that team was special," Mowry said. "Just the love that all of us had together, the camaraderie in that locker room was unreal. I knew we could do it and just turn the season around."

That's exactly what Louisville did, knocking off the Commodores and advancing to Super Regionals where they took down Miami in a best-of-three series to punch their ticket to Omaha.

Mowry's individual season took a few different turns. He began the season planning to redshirt and preserve an extra year of eligibility but ended up having a chance to play when Louisville's primary catcher suffered an injury early in conference play. He made a handful of starts, including a few on the weekends, and got his feet wet catching against some of the top teams in the country.

By the postseason, Mowry had returned to his role as a reserve in which he sat back and learned from the Cardinals' pair of older catchers in front of him. In the ninth inning of Louisville's elimination game in Omaha against Coastal Carolina, though, Mowry got the call to pinch hit and step into the famed batter's box on Charles Schwab Field.

"I've never played in front of that many people," Mowry said. "To turn around and see all of our parents and fans so happy and being able to sign kids' autographs and things like that made the trip worthwhile. It was a super special experience."

Even though his team's season ended just a few hitters thereafter, Mowry echoed the sentiment that Cunningham and nearly every player who's made that once-in-a-lifetime trip shares. Being able to soak in and ultimately compete on the storied stage that most spend their childhood fantasizing about is an experience like no other.

"The whole thing felt like a dream come true," Mowry said. "It was a surreal, surreal feeling."

Now, with the adrenaline of Omaha behind them, both Cunningham and Mowry are settling into the Rivets for the second half of the summer. It's a much different grind than the one that just led them to college baseball's mountain top, but it's the latest step in the process for both players as they hope to one day make it back.

The two join a Rivets squad that despite some first half struggles, are equipped with a trove of new faces that has them well-equipped to make a run at the second half crown and a second playoff berth in as many years. Both will be key pieces in that endeavor, with their winning pedigree an extremely valuable benefit to a group of players from all over the college world.

Both also are reunited with their former travel coach, Rivets manager Chase Brewster, who has seen each grow from when they began high school all the way to the national spotlight they just reached.

"Those are two kids that are so easy to root for," Brewster said. "You want to see them do great things. You want to see them have success. It's just so awesome that they both got to go to Omaha as freshmen and knowing them, hopefully that won't be their last time."

Cunningham has taken over as the Rivets' primary shortstop, while Mowry will join Rockford's rotation of catchers. For them, the summer is about staying sharp, growing their confidence and getting every last rep they can to continue developing to hopefully experience that Omaha journey again. And perhaps one day, achieve that other baseball dream. The major league one.

And of course, the chance to take a step back and simply enjoy themselves is ultimately what the summer with the Rivets is all about. One thing's for certain - they have the stories every teammate wants to hear.

"Everybody's welcomed me into the team pretty easily," Cunningham said. "It's been a great experience so far and even in losses, it's still really fun."

"It's a great group," Mowry added. "We've got a lot of talented guys and it'll be fun to turn this thing around and get on the right track."



Northwoods League Stories from July 3, 2025


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