CARROLLTON, Ala. — Wade Goodman knew for sure that Shelby Lowe was the real thing when she was in sixth grade.
Goodman, taking a year off from coaching softball at Pickens Academy, parked outside the school’s softball field and watched from his car as the left-hander dominated Marengo Academy, one of Alabama’s top teams.
“She was setting them down,” he said. “You’re like, ‘She is the real deal.'”
A year or two later, Goodman recalled a conversation with Lowe’s parents. “‘Just sit back and enjoy it,’ he told them. “‘Don’t be so stressed out about it. Sit back and enjoy the ride, because she is a once-in-a-lifetime deal.'”
The ride Goodman foresaw has taken Lowe to the upper echelons of softball in Alabama. It got her offers from Alabama, Mississippi State, Florida State and Tennessee. And Wednesday, Lowe reached another milestone. She signed her national letter of intent to play softball at Auburn, fulfilling her goal of playing softball at the highest collegiate level.
“That’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” Lowe said. “That’s been my dream for a long time.”
Lowe’s father graduated from Auburn, and while she said he advised her to go wherever she felt most comfortable, she’ll continue the family legacy on The Plains.
“I wanted to stay closer to home, and when I got to Auburn, it just felt like home,” Lowe said. “I loved the people there. I love the environment and everything.”
With Lowe’s pure dominance in her sophomore and junior seasons, she basically had her pick of colleges, Goodman said. owe pitched to a 0.63 earned run average with 13 shutouts, six no-hitters and two perfect games in her sophomore season. She struck out 347 hitters in 166⅔ innings that season, and she led the state of Alabama with 15.7 strikeouts per seven innings her junior season.
“She’s that type of pitcher,” Goodman said. “If we get a couple runs, she’s gonna win. Her numbers are phenomenal. I just try to stay out of the way.”
Goodman is happy to get one more crack at a state title that has eluded the Pirates so far with Lowe still in the fold. Once she’s gone, things will get a lot tougher for the school.
“We won’t ever have another talent like that,” he said. “Matter of fact, our softball team will take two or three years to recover. They’ll sit back next year and wonder, ‘Shelby’s not here? Where’s Shelby?’ Hopefully we can recover.
“We had a good softball team before she was pitching. But her pitching for six or seven years now? That’s all everybody knows. It’s gonna be hard to replace her. I don’t think we’ll do it in three years; I really don’t. I think it’s gonna take a while.”
In search of success in the state tournament, Goodman even went as far as to “hide” Lowe in regular-season games against teams the Pirates might face in the playoffs.
“It didn’t work, of course,” he said.
At the state tournament, Lowe and Pickens Academy got close but never ended up at the top.
“We’ve been runner-up four times, I believe, and the teams that we lost to were better,” Goodman said. “A couple of times, we went and we were playing our best softball and we gave them all we had. A couple of times we went and we were not playing our best softball.”
Now it’s the Pirates’ last chance with their star still on the mound.
“We’re just trying to go out and go to state and try to win state when we go,” Lowe said. “That’s our goal every year.”
After that, it’s off to the Southeastern Conference for the left-hander, who nearly ended up staying even closer to home at Alabama.
Before Lowe even entered her sophomore year, Goodman emailed the Crimson Tide about his star, and Alabama coach Patrick Murphy responded with some basic questions for the Pirates coach.
“‘If you don’t get her, she’s gonna beat you,'” Goodman recalled telling Murphy. “‘Somebody in your own backyard’s gonna beat you one day down the road. She’s that good.'”
Lowe, of course, ended up with the Tide’s in-state rival instead. That’s fine with Goodman, who will be on hand in Tuscaloosa when Lowe and the Tigers come to town. He’ll even wear an Auburn softball shirt if she can get him one.
“I’m an Alabama fan, but I’m gonna be an Auburn fan when she pitches,” Goodman said. ” … I am gonna be a Shelby fan.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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