Duncan Bowles, Randall baseball, Sr.
On the diamond: Bowles and the Raiders made about as convincing an opening statement as anybody could last Friday in their District 4-4A opener at home against Dumas. With No. 3 Randall as the prohibitive favorite entering district play, Bowles lived up to the reputation of someone who was the District 3-5A pitcher of the year last season. In his first district game since Randall dropped down a class after UIL realignment a year ago, Bowles was as dominant as possible, throwing a no-hitter and striking out 12 to lead the Raiders to a district opening 12-0 six-inning 10-run mercy rule victory. Bowles, who has signed to pitch for Amarillo College next year, has been the undisputed ace of Randall’s strong pitching staff with a 5-0 mark this season. He’s helped the Raiders get off to a 16-3 record and 2-0 district mark to start the season.
Coach Cory Hamilton: “He’s done a tremendous job for us all year long. He’s been and leader on and off the field and he’s kind of the leader of that pitching staff. In the preparation and the mental side of it, he has a lot of discussions with other pitchers. The main is he leads by example. He just goes out there and throws a lot of strikes. I thought he attacked the strike zone early (against Dumas) and got ahead of hitters. He just continued to work and had a really good day. He’s all about resilience starting in his sophomore year when he had a freak ACL tear. He had to sit out the whole year. His junior year was a really good breakout year. This year he’s just gone out and gotten better each start. He goes out there and focuses more on what his job is as opposed to what the other team is trying to do.”
Bowles: “It was just preparation the night before and the week before in practice, just making sure everything is right and pinpoint perfect. I have a really long warmup routine. I like to warm up every individual part of my body to get nice and loose and make sure it’s all working right. I felt really good with the group behind me. Everyone’s still in the same position. I just throw around the strike zone. I’ll throw into the strike zone to and let my pitches break away, but I just try to let the dudes behind me work because we have a really good defense. The strikeouts just come with it. We have a new pitching philosophy where the first two or three pitches are going to be strikes and keep our defense on their toes ready to play. I feel like it’s a pretty big responsibility.”
About Bowles
Favorite band or musician: Young Dolf
Favorite social media platform: Instagram
Favorite athlete: Buster Posey
Bet you didn’t know: Loves being out in nature
Parents: Chad and Jeannie Bowles