Extra Inning Softball ranks Dowling second in US class of 2020 softball players

By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com

They were a group of 17 teen-aged girls, brought together during nine weeks of summer vacation 2019 for a series of softball games and practices.

They played in France. They played in Ireland. They played throughout the United States.

Five of them had just finished with a collegiate season that included participating in the College World Series.

Two of them were still in high school.

“At first, it was pretty nerve-wracking,” said Bailey Dowling, a senior at St. Joseph-Ogden High School. “It was a new team and a lot of older girls.”

Dowling, a shortstop, was one of the youngsters on the elite team. She quickly proved she wasn’t an afterthought on the roster of the USA Junior National Team.

In Dowling’s second game with the U-19 team, on June 15, Dowling was 3-for-3 and drove in five runs. Two of her hits were home runs.

She was the team’s cleanup hitter in that game.

“I went in with the mindset that I would work hard and show everyone I can do this,” said Dowling, who won’t turn 18 until April. “I had trained months in advance to play with and against all of these amazing girls.”

Dowling, the two-time Gatorade High School Player of the Year in Illinois, didn’t take a backseat to anyone.

The U-19 team had a 28-5-1 record for the summer. Dowling batted .338 (25 for 74) and drove in 27 runs. She played in 29 games.

Ten of her hits went for extra bases and six were home runs.

The Junior National Team season ended on Aug. 17 when the USA squad completed a 10-0 tournament run by beating Japan 4-3 to capture team honors in the 16-country U-19 World Cup.

In one four-game stretch of the tourney, played in Irvine, Cal., Dowling was 6-for-10. She swatted a home run and double against a Czechoslovakian team and drilled two singles against Canada. In a game against Mexico, she had two RBI.

She was third on the team with nine runs batted in during the nine-day competition. Significantly, she struck out just twice in the U-19 World Cup event.

“I took each day as it came,” Dowling said.

The accolades haven’t stopped since the summer season ended.

Extra Inning Softball released its national rankings earlier this month. For all high school players in Dowling’s Class of 2020, she is ranked second.

“Pretty crazy and pretty cool,” she said.

A reputation as a home run slugger preceded the University of Alabama recruit (she committed in 2016) to the Junior National Team.

During her first three prep seasons at SJ-O, Dowling has hammered a state-record 65 home runs.

With that total, she also ranks fourth all-time nationally and is on pace to rewrite the National Federation record books. The current high school career home run record in softball is 75, set by Kasey Flores, from Texas, between 2015-18.

Statistical markers aren’t ones that the 5-foot-10 Dowling uses to gauge her progress.

“I don’t pay attention to these records and don’t like being told stats,” she said. “I set a goal to get 1 percent better each day and to work harder than everyone else.”

She has access to an area in a shed at home where she works on hitting and fielding.

When the games arrive, Dowling’s quest is simple.

“I want to play to have fun and be successful,” she said.

It took a little prodding for Dowling, as a 5-year-old, to play T-ball.

“I was shy,” she said. “My mom (Nicki) forced me to play, but that was the only time.

“I loved it and it was never a factor of I ‘have’ to. I wanted to do it 24/7.”

Softball took her out of the country for the first time in the summer of 2019. The USA U-19 team played four games in France and one in Ireland – the first international softball game played in that country.

“We didn’t play on a softball field,” Dowling said. “It was a rugby field.”

Dowling who slugged two home runs in the bronze-medal game at the International Cup Tournament in Columbus, Ga., and has gained the respect of pitchers throughout the world.

Others may hold that view, too, but it’s not how Dowling sees herself.

“I’m from a small town and I don’t think of myself as a big deal or anything,” she said, “but as a normal person.”

Closer to home, there was a group that showed Dowling how they felt and the respect they had for her earlier this fall.

Students at St. Joseph-Ogden High School voted Dowling as the Homecoming Queen.

It was not an expectation that she had.

“I was surprised,” Dowling said. “I didn’t know what to do (when the announcement was made). I didn’t plan anything.”

Soft-spoken is an accurate description of her persona during interviews, but when her softball bat does the talking, the message is received loud and clear.

In all circles of her life, Bailey Dowling is a hit.