Hansen: Kenzie Fowler capped spectacular CDO career with state title

May 22, 2009: Kenzie Fowler pitches Canyon del Oro to its third state championship

Kenzie Fowler’s name first appeared in the Star on Dec. 6, 2001. She was a sixth-grader at Orange Grove Middle School who had gone 11-0 in a Phoenix softball tournament for her parents’ team, Desert Thunder.

Then came this in July 2004: “Kenzie Fowler, a local softball standout, managed to excel among more than 700 players at this month’s Triple Crown World Series in Park City, Utah.

“Fowler, who originally went to the tournament to watch her sister, Mattie, play for the 10-and-under Desert Thunder, was named the MVP of the entire competition after she was added to the roster of the Pirettes, a 12U team from Grand Terrace, California. Kenzie pitched 49 innings and did not allow any runs in the Pirettes’ championship.”

When Fowler entered Canyon del Oro High School for the 2005-6 year, her fastball was clocked at 69 mph. Arizona’s All-American pitcher at the time, Alicia Hollowell, regularly threw about 65-67 mph.

What followed was the most accomplished high school softball career in Tucson — and probably Arizona — history.

CDO won state titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Fowler went 104-8. The only time CDO didn’t win the championship was Fowler’s freshman season, 2006. The Dorados lost in the title game, 1-0, and Fowler struck out 13.

Fowler committed to play for Arizona in the fall of her sophomore season. The best was yet to come. In 2008 and 2009, she was named the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year. She was part of the USA Softball Junior National team while a sophomore at CDO.

Arizona had won eight NCAA softball championships when Fowler enrolled in the fall of 2009. Expectations were ridiculous; some thought the Wildcats could win four consecutive championships with Fowler on the mound.

That talk didn’t subside much in 2010 when Fowler went 38-9 as a freshman, a first-team All-American, striking out 371 in 284 innings. The Wildcats finished second at the Women’s College World Series; Fowler pitched all but nine innings.

“To do what she did, I think it’s probably one of the best sports feats I’ve seen in a long time,” UA coach Mike Candrea said. “Honest to God. You think about the two days to get us here. C’mon.”

In the tournament, she threw 805 pitches over 36º innings.

Fowler’s run capped one of the great years, freshman or otherwise, in the history of Wildcats pitching.

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“Her composure and her presence on the mound was not that of a freshman,” said Jennie Finch, a UA legend. “Being a Wildcat, you watch her and you’re so proud knowing what an incredible freshman she is.”

Finch won 24 as a freshman, 14 fewer than Fowler.

Unpredictably, and tragically, Fowler would never again match the excellence of her freshman season.

Near the end of a sophomore season, 2011, in which she was posting numbers similar to her debut season’s, she was struck in the head by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout and missed nearly three weeks with a concussion.

A season later, 2012, Fowler pitched through back pain all season and her production slipped. She was 15-9.

Fowler’s physical discomfort eventually led to lumbar microdiscectomy (LMD) surgery in the fall of 2012 to repair a herniated disk and a decision to redshirt the 2013 season rather than rush her recovery.

When Fowler returned for a fifth year, 2014, she couldn’t recapture her pitching mastery. She went 8-6 and wasn’t even the UA’s top pitcher.

It almost didn’t seem fair, especially after what Fowler had gone through seven years earlier.

In 2007, after going 28-4 as a CDO sophomore, Fowler was hospitalized for 13 days after undergoing surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome. The procedure restored the blood flow from her collarbone to her ribs.

“I had such a wonderful career,” she said after leaving competitive softball in 2014. “I had a few bad breaks, but overall I was blessed to enjoy softball for almost 15 years.”

Where are they now?: After graduating from the UA with a degree in journalism, Fowler was hired as an analyst by the Pac-12 Networks. Her sister, Mattie, was Arizona’s softball Player of the Year in 2011, leading CDO to another state championship.

How she did it: Fowler didn’t tiptoe into high school competition. She pitched two perfect games in the first month of her freshman season at CDO.