PA’s Shelby Lowe has Success in Summer League Softball

By Brian Hamilton, Sports Correspondent

Shelby Lowe has been playing the last few seasons for the Birmingham Thunderbolts travel softball team and her team was successful in several tournaments this past summer.

The Thunderbolts won their tournament in Colorado after going 10-0 in that tournament. The team then played a tournament in Chicago where they came in second place before winning the Premier Girls Fastpitch championship in California.

“It’s fun (getting to travel), but after three or four days you’re ready to come home,” Lowe said. “I feel like I have a family here and then a family in Birmingham because they’re pretty much like my travel ball family, so it’s not bad.”

Lowe has had some games in AISA where she will strike out over 20 batters in a single game. The junior said that she’s had games on the travel ball circuit where she has struck out double digit batters, but it isn’t quite as often.

“I think I had like 12 or 13 strikeouts (in a game), but that’s not every game,” Lowe said. “But when it is like really good teams I’ll have like four strikeouts and then the rest is just like routine plays. The teams that we play, pretty much everyone is committed (to play college) at D1 schools.”

Lowe has been committed to play softball at Auburn since her freshman year, but says that recently a rule was put in place to where college coaches are not allowed to contact players until their junior year.

“They had a girl in 6th grade and she committed to Florida,” Lowe said. “Then they changed the rules to where you can’t talk to college coaches before September 1st of your junior year. So I can’t even talk to my college coach right now.”