Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 6, 1993 TAG: 9305060386
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-18 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DALEVILLE LENGTH: Long
You know the kind. They have success as a freshman, and three years later they're still having success - making it seem to opponents that the athlete's career is eons longer than it really is.
Sowers pitched Lord Botetourt to the Group AA state softball championship game as a freshman. Last year as a junior, Sowers had the Cavaliers in the state final again when she issued a bases-loaded walk that pushed the winning run over the plate for Poquoson in the eighth inning.
This spring, her senior season, Sowers is 4-0 with an 0.91 earned run average and trying for the last time to win that elusive state title. In four years, Sowers is 42-12 with a 1.88 earned run average and 344 strikeouts over 420 innings.
Lord Botetourt coach Andy Ward's first season also was Sowers' debut in high school.
"She looked good in practice, but we had two good pitchers [Katrinia Wilhelm and Donna Shelton]," Ward said. "They pitched the first two games, and I decided to give a freshman a chance against James River in the third game."
After Sowers beat James River 3-0, Ward knew he had a special pitcher. He made a quick decision that Sowers would be his workhorse. Shelton, then a senior, and Wilhelm, a junior, took up residence at second base and shortstop.
Tammy Callahan, a member of the 1990 Botetourt team and now an assistant coach, had heard of Sowers.
"But the only person we paid attention to was Donna Shelton. She was as fast as Janell, but she didn't have the control," Callahan said. "Donna was upset when Janell became the No. 1 pitcher, but she was wise enough to accept it."
So was the team as a whole, because Sowers went on to win All-Timesland honors as a freshman. Then came the state tournament, pressure Sowers would learn to cope with as a rookie.
"I had no expectation of going to the state. I just wanted to do my best. When you're a freshman, you're scared. I was afraid of the upperclassmen," said Sowers.
By the time tournament time rolled around, Sowers still was wide-eyed and not sure about what was happening.
"This will sound awful," she said. "I was really naive, but I didn't know there was a state championship until the night before the tournament when people started telling me about it. I realized then that if we lost one of the games, we'd be out of it."
Her team was the state runner-up that year, then came the sophomore jinx.
Sowers went 3-8 and was dumped by Brookville 15-7 in the first round of the Region III Tournament after the Cavaliers had pulled off a couple of upsets to win the Blue Ridge District Tournament.
"I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. I should have just come out and played the game. The year is kind of fuzzy because we also had some team problems," said Sowers.
The Cavaliers' pitcher says people picked her out as a dominant pitcher and asked what happened to her instead of looking at errors and batting averages of all the players together.
Still, if Sowers was a sophomore fizzle, she was the comeback player of the year last spring. Again, Sowers made the All-Timesland team. The Cavaliers barged into the state final with Sowers going 17-4 before the Poquoson game. Then came the bases-loaded walk, which was highly disputed. Even one Poquoson player said it looked like a strike.
"It's one of those wounds that won't heal. It stays with you. I won't get over it," said Sowers. "But it was a game. I have to move on.
"I tried my best. Putting it into perspective, it wasn't my life. There was another year to go."
That year is at hand. This is the last chance, and Sowers hopes to make the best of it.
"I really want a state championship now. To me, winning the state would make me so happy," she said. "Last year, after having done that, I realized how much I wanted it. But I don't feel any pressure. Softball is fun to play. I love to play, and I take it seriously."
Call it maturity as Sowers realizes her role. She also realizes she has a life off the field, too.
"I have softball friends and others who are not in softball. Three of my friends - an artist, a painter and a musician - have never even seen me play. It doesn't bother me that they haven't come to watch me. They call me the athlete, and I just try not to be a jock around them," said Sowers.
Her softball friends include - naturally for a pitcher - catcher Susan Wyche and reserves Ginger Layman and Lori Ottaway.
"Last year Becky Meacham [a senior] was my catcher," said Sowers. "I just thought I won't be able to pitch this year without her. But Susan and I are really good friends. She makes me laugh when I'm upset. When she comes out [to the mound], she just says, `Janell, let's do it.' "
When Sowers is in the dugout between innings, she sits between Layman and Ottaway.
"If I'm frustrated, they talk to me, and before I go back out there, I have to give them five," Sowers said. "They're my lucky charms. I have all the emotional support, and it keeps me going."
Earlier this year, Sowers sat out a game after taking a senior trip to New York. She watched sister Mandy Sowers pitch a victory.
"I thought, `This is fun. I'm not out here to impress people or strike out people. I'm just out here because I like it and it's fun,' " Janell Sowers said, summing up her career beyond the victories.
by CNB