This is one in a series of articles highlighting some of the best players in the area heading into the 2022 high school softball season.
KNOX, Pa. (EYT/D9) — The numbers didn’t seem real.
A .766 batting average, 14 home runs — and 14 outs made all season for Keystone slugger Natalie Bowser.
She drove in 48. She scored 32 runs. She had 15 doubles, too. Her OPS makes one do a double take — 2.558.
She was named to the MaxPreps underclassmen All-American team after leading the nation in batting average, according to the site.
How does the junior on the Panther softball team top that? Well, she doesn’t even try.
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
“I’m just not going to overthink things,” Bowser said. “I’m just going to fall in love with the game all over again because that’s when I’m at my best.”
Recreating a season like that is a tall order for any player, even one as gifted as Bowser.
As last season progressed – her first on a high school diamond because of the canceled 2020 campaign – the 5-foot-11 masher saw fewer and fewer hittable pitches.
Teams simply did not want Bowser to be the one to beat them.
That was no more evident than in the District 9 Class 2A championship game against Moniteau. The Warriors chose to intentionally walk Bowser four times. The one time they opted to pitch to her? She blasted a tape-measure home run.
Bowser may receive the same treatment this season – lots of free passage to the first-base bag.
Bowser is already coming to grips with that inevitability.
“A lot of teams are just gonna look to shut me down,” Bowser said. “I’m going to have to come at it with a different approach.”
That means not fretting about taking those walks — and probably a plethora of them. That also means relying on her teammates to make the opposition pay for putting her on base.
So far, Bowser thinks there are hitters around her in the Keystone lineup who can do just that.
“Our team is hitting really well right now,” Bowser said. “So, if I don’t get a chance to hit the ball, the other girls are gonna hit.”
Bowser pauses and chuckles before she says, “They’re going to have to pitch to somebody.”
Bowser, though, will also be on high alert for perhaps that one pitch per game she can hammer.
She may also think outside the box – and the strike zone.
Bowser worked this offseason on hitting what she calls “anything thrown at me.” It’s a fine balance between being too aggressive and swinging at pitches out of the zone, but being aggressive enough to pounce on a mistake, even if it’s not necessarily grooved down the heart of the plate.
It’s more of a change in mental approach than anything for Bowser.
“I’ve talked to my coaches a lot about this,” Bowser said. “I have to know that, OK, there’s going to be times when I’m not going to get pitched to at all. I’m just going to have to take what they give me and take a walk, but I have to be ready to swing at anything close to help my team.”
Lost in Bowser’s gaudy statistics as a menace in the batter’s box was how well she performed as a pitcher.
Bowser was 7-3 with a 1.85 ERA. She struck out 63 in 63 innings and walked just 14. She’s looking to improve on those numbers.
If she can’t put up instant runs like she did last season, perhaps she can prevent more of them.
“I’m really excited about this season,” she said. “I’m excited to see what we all can do.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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