Baseball: West Aurora drops series finale to Oswego

Hayden Bowman’s book smarts prevented the Oswego senior right-hander from finishing a brilliant start Thursday, not that he minded.

All in a busy day’s work.

Bowman walked off the mound after six shutout innings and 75 pitches and walked right to a National Honor Society event scheduled for 6 p.m. at the school where he received his senior cord for completing service hours.

“I actually went there in uniform,” Bowman said. “All pinstripes, walking across the stage.”

A sharp look after a sharp day at the office. Bowman retired the first 11 batters he faced, and allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out four as Oswego beat visiting West Aurora 6-2 in the rubber game of the three-game Southwest Prairie West series.

Bowman, who plans to study data science at Wisconsin-Parkside while playing baseball, carries a weighted 4.4 grade point average at Oswego.

He carried a precise game plan into his third start of the season, and exacted it beautifully. Only four outs reached the outfield, with nine ground balls, including a comebacker from the last batter Bowman faced.

Mason Atkins doubled with two outs in the fourth for West Aurora’s first base runner, but Oswego third baseman Anthony Comperda made a dynamite diving stop and throw for the inning’s third out.

“I came to the game wanting to be efficient and throw strikes. That was the plan no matter what the situation was attack, attack, attack,” Bowman said. “The first two games we struggled early with walks and throwing strikes. I wanted to set the tone early, attack with the fastball early and work off of that."

Bowman, a lanky 6-foot-2 sporting prescription glasses, didn’t sniff much of the mound as a junior as he struggled with confidence in his first varsity season. He’s clearly found it.

Bowman struck out 11 and took a perfect game into the seventh inning of his first start this spring, two weeks ago against Joliet Central. And he’s been also good in relief, closing out a conference win over Plainfield North last week.

“He’s been really good, keeping the ball in the zone, mixing pitches,” Oswego coach Joe Giarrante said. “He does well when he pounds the zone and pitches with confidence, and we played defense behind him. The confidence is there and the stuff is good enough to get guys out. He’s always had that bigger frame and the ball gets on batters quicker than they think with his length. He throws strikes and throws three pitches for strikes. He struggled with confidence last year but he’s found it.”

Bowman agreed that he’s a different pitcher this year.

“I think the nerves are gone. The gut feeling you get when you are first out there in a varsity game, it can be intimidating,” Bowman said. “At times last year maybe it got the best of me. Trusting my stuff, trusting the players around me, I’ve known some of them for almost a decade. It’s a feeling of family.”

Oswego (13-7-1, 4-2) hardly hit West Aurora starter Zach Toma hard, but capitalized on free bases and defensive miscues. Dylan King doubled and scored on a Bronson Norwood sacrifice fly after a West Aurora error in the first, and the Panthers scored two runs in the third and two in the fourth with the aid of five Blackhawks’ walks and another error. Easton Ruby’s sacrifice fly scored Kam Jenkins to make it 5-0 in the fifth, and Ruby singled in King in the sixth for the sixth run.

Toma walked seven, and three came around to score, while Oswego had just five hits.

“That’s the name of the game is throwing strikes,” West Aurora coach John Reeves said. “You take those off the board and it’s a 3-2 game, a little tighter. Errors happen, that’s baseball, but you can control those walks. Last time out he barely walked anybody, but walks got him and drove his pitch count up.”

West Aurora (9-10, 1-5) scored two in the seventh with the help of three infield singles, Logan Weaver’s scoring the first run, before Oswego reliever Nick Tickle closed out the Panthers’ second straight SPC West series win with back-to-back strikeouts.

“You’re winning series, that will put you in contention to be at the top of the conference at the end of the year,” Giarrante said. “One game at a time. It’s good, our pitchers were very efficient this week.”