Senior Salute: Shelby Lowe regains confidence, finds joy through adversity

AUBURN, Ala. – Shelby Lowe was locked in last Sunday afternoon at LSU. The Auburn southpaw was carving up the opposing hitters and had given up only one run off one hit through the first four innings. But she had thrown 72 pitches through four innings, reaching her pitch count for the game.

Head coach Mickey Dean walked up to her and said, “You’re done.”

Lowe has been on a pitch count the last two seasons after undergoing multiple surgeries on her throwing arm, and Dean was simply trying to protect her by taking her out.

But Lowe replied, “I’m good. I want to stay in.”

It was the first time since Lowe had the surgeries that she had insisted on staying in the game after reaching her pitch count. A couple of her teammates, including fellow pitcher Maddie Penta, encouraged Dean to leave Lowe in. So, that’s what he did.

“When she asked to stay in the game, that was the first time she’s done that,” Dean said. “And so, we went pitch by pitch and batter by batter.”

Lowe finished the game, pitching three more shutout innings to lead Auburn to a 3-1 victory at No. 6 LSU. It was the first time she had thrown seven innings in a game since Feb. 25, 2022, her sophomore year, when she pitched a complete-game shutout with 13 strikeouts against ULM.

“These past few years have been really tough,” Lowe said. “Going through treatments and rehab and all of that kind of stuff is not easy. Mentally, it’s not easy either. Just because of my role my freshman year and then trying to find my role my sophomore and my junior year. It was definitely not easy. After Sunday, I can hang my hat on knowing, ‘You can still do it.’

“It gives me a lot of confidence. Honestly, before now, I didn’t really have it. Not as much as I used to. But just knowing that I can go out there and I can throw seven innings, it gives me that confidence.”

Lowe came to Auburn as one of the top prospects from the state of Alabama. She was a five-time All-State honoree and was named the 2019-20 Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year.

As a freshman in 2021, Lowe lived up to the hype with 13 wins, one save and an ERA of 1.48 over 165.2 innings of work. She struck out 179 batters and ranked second in the SEC with a 6.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio. She made the All-SEC Second Team and All-SEC Freshman Team.

That success carried over to her sophomore season where Lowe posted a 9-3 record and finished with a team-best five saves. But she battled injury throughout most of the season and was forced to have ulnar nerve transposition surgery after the season was over. When that didn’t resolve the issue, she had a second surgery, radial nerve decompression, two months later.

Lowe returned to the circle for her junior year but was on a strict pitch count and threw maybe two innings per weekend. That pitch count went up to 70 this season, and she and Dean have stayed close to that number every time she’s pitched. Until Sunday.

“I don’t know if proud is the right word. I think just grateful,” Dean said. “Not only was she able to have the surgery and it was a successful surgery, but now she’s been able to grow past the point of being scared. That’s something as a coach you always worry about. It’s not always the physical. It’s the mental. You don’t want to hurt a player physically, and you surely don’t want to hurt a player mentally.”

Lowe will be back in the circle Saturday when Auburn hosts No. 24 Kentucky. It’s a critical SEC matchup with postseason implications, and it’s also Shelby Lowe Senior Day.

Among those expected to be in attendance at Jane B. Moore Field for Lowe’s special day will be her kindergarten class from Cary Woods Elementary. Lowe, who has wanted to be a teacher since she was little, is currently teaching a class as part of her internship program at Auburn.

“It’s kind of just been a dream to me,” Lowe said. “I have always been a magnet to kids.”

Nobody is more excited about Saturday’s game than her class.

“I’ve had multiple kids come up to me, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, Miss Lowe. I saw you on TV.’ It’s like a different role for me that I play,” she said. “I play an adult to them, but out here, I’m somebody else. I’m really excited. The kids are really excited. They have been talking about it for a really long time.”

Little do the kids know that their teacher is coming off one of her best performances at Auburn, a performance that means even more because of what she has had to overcome.

“Just overcoming adversity and overcoming all these things on top of winning the series, it was something special,” Lowe said.