Maryland Love Connection: Brandon & Madison Lowe

“Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too,” - Yogi Berra.

For Brandon and Madison Lowe, those two things: love and baseball (or softball) have molded their relationship and got them to where they are today, where they’ve gone from two student-athletes playing ball for Maryland to one of the MLB’s power couples, with Brandon starring for the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays and Madison running her own home-based bakery: Sweet and Lowe. 

Brandon and the then-Madison Martin entered college at Maryland in 2012-13, coming from very different backgrounds, with Lowe arriving from Virginia and Martin hailing from Oklahoma. As both were acquainting to the same things all students do when beginning college, they first laid eyes on each other in nowhere else but XFINITY Study Hall on an October night. 

“We always would sit by each other in study hall and started talking to each other,” said Madison. “From there we became really good friends, and it grew into a relationship during our third year at Maryland.”

As the diamond couple was developing their relationship off the field, Brandon and Madison were starring on it. Brandon was a two-time All-American, two-time all-conference performer and ended his Maryland career with a remarkable .338 batting average, helping lead the Terps to back-to-back Super Regional appearances in 2014 and 2015. 

Madison played softball from 2013-17, appearing in 141 games in the circle and in the outfield, ranking fifth all-time in program history with 128 pitching appearances and was named the Team MVP in 2017 with a 3.53 ERA.

“Going through college together as student-athletes really gave our relationship a strong base because we were going through a lot of the same things as far as our schedules and experiences,” said Brandon. “In the spring we were definitely away more than together but we both made it work.”

Although apart a ton from the months of February to June, both remember each other's biggest on field moments as a Terp. 

Madison was cheering loudly on TV when Brandon and the Terps upset South Carolina in opposing territory in the 2014 NCAA Regional to reach the first Super Regional and Brandon was in attendance three years later when Madison went 3-for-4 with a RBI and came in to get the save as the Terps shocked No. 1 Florida in Gainesville in 2017.

“That was special to watch,” both said about each other's biggest Maryland moments. 

Brandon was drafted in the third round of the MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2015 which moved him all over the place from Bowling Green, Kentucky to Charlotte, North Carolina to Montgomery, Alabama as he climbed up the minor league ranks in 2016-18 all while Madison was still in College Park in 2016-17 and then took a job in Nashville.

“It was a challenge, but when Brandon first got drafted it wasn’t too different from when we were in college because we both had the same busy schedules with baseball and softball and didn’t see each other a lot,” recalled Madison. “Once I graduated it was harder because I wasn’t as busy with work but still couldn’t go see him as much as we wanted and we were used to living with each other by then.”

That all changed when the now married Lowe’s found a home in Tampa Bay when Brandon got called up to the big leagues on August 4, 2018. 

The lefty, multi-position player has excelled in the majors, finishing third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2019, being named a 2019 All-Star and slashing an impressive career .260 batting average with 33 home runs, 103 RBIs and an .856 OPS, this year being mentioned in MVP talks for the surging Rays.

“It was unbelievable to be voted an All-Star last year and to get to be in the same locker room with players I have looked up to for the last eight years,” said Brandon. “It has been nice to go out there and prove the Rays right in taking a chance on me to produce at the big league level.”

“It has been so much fun and rewarding to watch Brandon excel because I know how hard he has worked and how he has had to prove himself at every level and overcome obstacles each step of the way,” said a proud Madison.

Now married for almost three years, the two have settled down in Tampa with their dog Collie and Madison baking up treats for her new bakery business “Sweet and Lowe.” 

One thing will never change with the Lowe’s, both as high level athletes, everything is always a competition. 

“We compete with everything we do. We have a piece of paper on our fridge of who is winning the “quarantine games” which is all the board games, yard games, and anything we have done since the start of COVID.”

The other thing that will never change, their roots, the place they met, the place that started them on this path together: the University of Maryland.