When junior, left-handed pitcher Paige Lowary steps into the circle for the Sooners, she brings with her a face mask — a reminder of an accident that happened 13 months ago.
Last February, Lowary was pitching for Missouri against Oregon in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in California when she threw a drop curve and missed down the middle. Oregon’s Nikki Udria hit a line drive and struck Lowary in the face.
“I don’t really remember it that much,” said Lowary, who said she didn’t get a concussion test after getting struck with the ball. “But, like, I watched the video, and when I watched the video I can remember it.”
Soon after she got hit, Lowary was back in the game, wearing a face mask she borrowed from a teammate who had been hit previously by a ball.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lowary was told she didn’t have to go back into the game, but she insisted she wanted to.
Lowary went on to give up six runs in the frame — four earned — before being pulled.
Since March 20, The Daily has made multiple attempts — one via email and three via phone call — to contact Missouri officials, but it has not received a response.
Last year for Mizzou, Lowary pitched 198 innings. She struck out 151 batters, walked 103 and had a 25-8 record with a 3.25 ERA.
“I was kind of the only pitcher last year at Missouri, so I kind of had to go back out there,” Lowary said. “And it kind of helped me get over it, like, being thrown back out there.”
Five days after the incident, she pitched three innings against Michigan, yielding 11 earned runs on six hits and seven walks.
Lowary said she still flinches when she misses a pitch down the middle and doesn’t think she’ll ever get over the feeling.
“I was really scared for a long time,” Lowary said. “I had a lot of control problems, and I walked a lot of people. But towards the end of the season I got over it and now I’m not scared.”
Lowary said she had memory and concentration problems for six to eight months after she got hit and still meets with a neurologist.
By the time August rolled around and Lowary joined the Sooners, OU coach Patty Gasso still wasn’t willing to give her a full release.
“We continued to treat her as if she was in a concussion phase,” Gasso said. “So we sent her through all the testing, and she really didn’t do much for quite a long time in the fall until she got her concentration back.
“For her well-being and peace of mind, we wanted her to get a chance to breathe.”
Lowary decided to transfer from Missouri in the middle of the summer.
“I think I just realized that Missouri wasn’t a good fit for me, and I just really wanted to find a place that felt like a home away from home,” Lowary said.
Oklahoma was the first team Lowary visited and said she felt like it was the place for her once she arrived. She had seen the Sooners play in the Women’s College World Series and thought they were a team that had a lot of fun — she got the same feeling when she visited.
“When my family came they were like ‘OK, yeah, this is your place,’” Lowary said.
Lowary said she feels like she’s 100 percent healthy now. She's grown into the Sooners' No. 2 starter behind All-American Paige Parker, posting a 2.21 ERA through 57 innings pitched. She has a 7-1 record, 54 strikeouts and 20 walks.
Lowary said she had to get used to the ways the Sooners’ program is different from Missouri, but once she got adjusted she felt like she fit in well. She said she likes her coaches because they are open with her.
“I like when they’re brutally honest with me, and I like their constructive criticism,” Lowary said. “And I just like the way that they do it.”
Associate head coach Melyssa Lombardi said working with Lowary has been challenging because the coaches have changed some things for her, but she’s enjoyed the challenge.
“You can see that she’s a competitor on the mound, but off the mound she’s funny. She’s got a good sense of humor,” Lombardi said. “I feel like she just fit in really well with the other athletes. And they were accepting of her, she was accepting of them, so I just feel like she’s been a really nice fit for us.”
Lombardi said Lowary has grown mentally and physically since coming to Oklahoma. She said they have hit ground balls and line drives at her to help her get more comfortable.
“You can see that she’s confident and not shying away,” Lombardi said. “You can just also see too with what she’s doing on the mound, the way she’s attacking hitters. You know in early parts of the season she was walking people a lot more, and now you can see that she’s really just going right at the hitter and doing a good job of working ahead in her counts.”
Lowary said at the beginning of the season she was still nervous about fitting in with her new team, but now she feels more relaxed and settled.
“I fit in here better. This is kind of my home away from home now,” Lowary said.
