Arizona's Hanah Bowen finally feels like her old self after taxing start to softball season

Hanah Bowen is finally starting to feel like she’s in her groove.

It’s hasn’t been easy for the Arizona ace. She took some time away from the Wildcats, came back, was out again, and now is back — and hopefully for good.

The fifth-year senior put up one of her best performances of the season Sunday, giving up three hits while striking out five and walking two in a 9-1, run-rule-shortened win over Oregon State in Corvallis.

Arizona (21-14, 2-10 Pac-12) will host No. 17 Oregon (24-11, 4-8 Pac-12) in a three-game series that starts Thursday at Hillenbrand Stadium. The first game of the series will be shown on ESPN2.

Bowen blamed "personal reasons from back home" for her first early-season departure. Then she was forced to miss the Wildcats' Pac-12 series at UCLA after being involved in a car accident.

“It was a struggle for me — very challenging. Just stopping and going, stopping and going But like I said, the mentality that I have, you just got to keep pushing through because that’s life,” Bowen said.

Bowen’s life as an ace is a relatively new one. For the first time, opponents are focusing on, studying and preparing for her. Bowen pitched just 22 times in her first three seasons as a Wildcat; last season, she pitched 21 times, serving as the team’s No. 1 starter as the Wildcats pushed their way into the Women’s College World Series.

UA pitching coach Taryne Mowatt-McKinney, a former ace herself, said the role is “exhausting mentally.” Add to this the other issues Bowen has endured, and it’s easy to understand how hard this season has been.

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“It’s been tough because when you are in and out you feel a little bit disconnected. Especially (because) she’s the one in practice that just randomly will say a joke under her breath and it’s hilarious. She knows how to have fun but work hard, and she’s super competitive,” Mowatt-McKinney said. “… It’s just keeping her engaged and then there’s times you know when you’re not able to pitch …you feel like you want to be in there and you don’t want to let your teammates down.”

Mowatt-McKinney says she has noticed an improved mindset from Bowen in the last few weeks. If Arizona’s ace doesn’t have her best stuff, she’ll find a way. This seems to have made all the difference on Sunday.

“She gives up the solo shot home run — the feeling on the field that starts in the circle was like, ‘OK next batter, come on. Like, we have a lead.’ It wasn’t like the weight of the world was on her,” Mowatt-McKinney said. “She did a really good job of coming back getting the next hitter. … She just has to interact with her fielders and let them know like, ‘Hey, I got you, you got me. This is a team thing. And if I give up a hit, we all get the hit if I get a strikeout, we all get a strikeout. It’s not one person doing the job. It’s all of us.’ … I think that’s what’s going to help us in this last half.”

Bowen has leaned on her coaches and her teammates to help her get through a difficult time. She said they had her back.

UA coach Caitlin Lowe was happy to hear it.

“I think early on, she felt like she had to do it all by herself and that’s daunting,” Lowe said. “You feel like you’re on this island on the mound. Our hitters were kind of feeling that way, too. And I think that was the first time Sunday where she says, ‘You know, I have a role and I’m going to do the best at my role for the good of this team.’ And when you’re taking care of your own business instead of worrying about the big picture at the same time, I think that’s when the pressure comes off and you can you just play softball.”