Matthew Bowman has had quite a week in the spotlight, and it’s only Wednesday. On Sunday, he was recognized by MLB Depth Charts for his stellar pitching performance. On Monday, he was named MMN’s Pitcher of the Week, and today he found himself the main topic of Adam Rubin’s weekly Farm Report on ESPN New York.

The right-hander said his goal coming into spring training was to break camp with the Savannah Sand Gnats. He thought there was a chance he’d be heading back to Brooklyn to play with the Cyclones for the second straight year. Bowman did achieve his goal, and headed to low-A with the Sand Gnats instead of staying in Florida. After a 4-0 start and a 2.65 ERA, he found himself promoted to Advanced-A St. Lucie. The success keeps coming, as he’s a combined 7-0 with a 2.50 ERA, 59 strikeouts, and eight walks in 57.2 innings pitched in2013.

The Mets drafted Bowman out of Princeton University in the 13th round of last year’s first-player draft. The hurler decided to skip his senior year and head to professional ball. That didn’t mean he didn’t have plans to finish off his degree in the near future, though.

Following his season with Brooklyn, Bowman attended Princeton this past fall to continue working toward completing his degree in economics. As of right now, the same plan applies for this upcoming fall.

Rubin noted that students enrolled at Princeton have to complete a thesis in both their junior and senior year. With one already finished, Bowman needs one more thesis to be eligible to graduate. His first one was baseball-centric, focusing on MLB ticket pricing. Once he chooses the topic of this final hurdle, he plans on working on it in the mornings throughout the summer.

I admire Bowman for taking the necessary steps to ensure he completes his college education in a timely fashion. I doubt there are many ballplayers out there with the motivation to do school work in the morning before heading to the ballpark. If that were me, I’m reasonably certain that doing anything school-related would be the furthest thing from my mind, especially when playing baseball was my job. So, I applaud you, Matt, for staying on track with your goal.