Assaf Lowengart

Assaf Lowengart (אסף לוונגרט)
also transliterated as Asaf

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 179 lb.
• School SUNY Sullivan C.C, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, College of William and Mary
• High School Ber'er Tuvia Regional High School

• Born March 1, 1998 in Be’er Sheva Israel

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Assaf Lowengart has played for the Israeli national team on numerous occasions.

His father was a soccer player in Israel; Assaf discovered baseball when his father was a professor in Milwaukee when Assaf was 6. When he was back in Israel at age 11, he saw baseball on the TV and found local opportunities by using the Internet. In the 2015 B-Level European Championship, he was 2 for 4 with a walk, steal and three runs for Israel, with one error in three chances. In the 2016 U21 European Championship, he started at 2B for Israel and batted .188/.222/.188, fielding .957. He also relieved one game, with a 10.18 ERA.

He starred at second for Israel in the 2017 B-Level European Championship - .417/.429/.500, 3 SB (1 CS), 5 RBI in 4 games entering the round-robin; no errors in ten chances. He had a 3-RBI game versus Serbia. He tied for 5th in the round-robin phase in steals. Only Arie Weinberg had more RBI or a better average for Israel. In the finals, he played left with Alon Leichman manning second instead. He was 1 for 3 in a loss to Christian Tomsich and Austria.

Lowengart moved to third base for Israel in the 2019 B-Level European Championship with the addition of former minor leaguer Mitch Glasser (Israel had recruited numerous American Jewish players to get Israeli citizenship to reinforce the baseball team) at 2B. He hit .158/.385/.316 with eight runs and four steals (in four tries) in six games, fielding .917. He homered off Ireland's Brendan Scott. He was 0 for 3 with a walk in Israel's finale win over Russia. For the tournament, he was 1st in steals (one ahead of Nikola Vasic and Geidys Soler), tied for 2nd in hit-by-pitch (3, even with Tal Erel and Nikita Monakhov) and tied for 5th in runs (with Nikita Monakhov, Maxim Monakhov, Frank Bulte and Alexander Vasiliev. Israel won the B-Level Euros for the 1st time.

Israel's victory moved them to the 2019 European Championship Playoff, where they swept Lithuania in the best-of-three event for a spot in the 2019 European Championship. He was 2 for 6 with 3 walks and 2 runs. He tied Zach Penprase for 7th in the event in slugging, tied for 8th in average, tied Jeremy Wolf for 5th in OBP, tied for 3rd with 3 RBI, tied Glasser and Simon Rosenbaum for 3rd in walks and was 7th in runs.

At the 2019 European Championship, Israel added further reinforcements from American Jewish players; taking over for Lowengart at third base would be veteran major leaguer Danny Valencia. In his first game, he pinch-ran for Nick Rickles and scored the tying run in the 9th against Sweden when Jakob Syrén uncorked a wild pitch. His first at-bat came as a pinch-hitter for Blake Gailen against the champion Dutch national team; he was retired by Tom Stuifbergen. In the 3rd/4th place game, he got to start as Israel was resting players for the following 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier. He doubled off Spain's Jorge Balboa to open the 2nd and came around to score on a double-play grounder by former major leaguer Ty Kelly. He was the second Israeli native to get a hit in a European Championship, following Erel. He was 1-for-5 for the Euros with a hit-by-pitch and two runs, while handling two assists in the field. Lowengart did not appear for Israel in the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier, Glasser starting at second base and Penprase at third; no Israeli native got to bat (Shlomo Lipetz did pitch) as Israel won a spot in the 2020 Olympics.

Lowengart came to the US for junior college in 2020, going 3-for-8 with a double, triple, five walks and three runs in three games before the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic (which also delayed the Olympics for a year). Transferring to Mansfield University, he batted .290/.394/.645 with 11 homers and 26 RBI in 36 games, fielding .872. He was 5th in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in home runs.

He was with Israel for the Olympics. He was the first Israeli native position player to appear in the Olympics (Lipetz and Leichman had pitched earlier in the game) when he took over for Glasser in right field late in a 8-1 loss to Team USA in Israel's second game. He was the first Israeli to reach base in the Olympics, when he pinch-hit for Penprase late in a win over Mexico and drew a walk from Carlos Bustamante. His other game, he replaced Ian Kinsler at second base and flew out against Tae-in Won of South Korea. He thus finished with the Olympics with a .500 OBP; he had two putouts in right and two assists at second, with no errors.

Related Sites

• William & Mary bio
• Mansfield bio