Travelin' man, Bowen, makes impact at BYU

Click here to read the feature story on BYU rightfielder Michael Bowen.

Michael Bowen took a circuitous route to Provo, Utah, where he’s now the starting right fielder on the Brigham Young University baseball team.

Bowen attended Dalton High School where he played second base and led the Catamounts in hitting his senior season under former Catamounts coach Manny Pontonio. After graduating, Bowen received offers from Shorter and Berry colleges in Rome to continue his career.

But Bowen was literally on a mission. He told coaches from Shorter and Berry that after one year he would go on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Las Vegas. He also told both coaches it was a two-year mission. Those coaches, Pontonio recalled Saturday, decided to retract their offers and Bowen sought other avenues to extend his diamond career.

He walked on at Southern Virginia University, a school “that embraces the values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” according to its Web site. True to his word, though, after one year there Bowen went on his two-year mission, but thoughts of SVU were never far from his mind.

SVU, located in Buena Vista, Va., began as the Bowling Green Female Seminary in 1867. In 1996, a group of Latter-day Saints assumed responsibility for the institution, its assets and liabilities, and converted it into a four-year liberal arts college. That fall, the new Southern Virginia College enrolled 76 students. In 12 years it has grown 10-fold to 700 students. In 2001, the name was changed to Southern Virginia University.

Back to Bowen.

After completing his mission experience, he returned to SVU and asked the coach if he could return to the team. Despite being away from baseball for two years, Bowen was given a tryout. He regained a spot on the team as a sophomore, led the Knights in almost every offensive category and was named to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association All-America team. In fact, Bowen led SVU in batting for two years, setting school records with a .487 batting average and nine home runs his sophomore season. He also had 15 doubles, 38 RBIs and scored 33 runs in 30 games his second year and was elected team captain.

Bowen was told by SVU coaches he should try playing at a Division I school. So he decided to fulfill his dream of playing at Brigham Young, traveling to Provo and walking on with the Cougars. However, once there he learned some of his credits from SVU would not be accepted at BYU, and to attend the school would mean his sitting out a year athletically.

BYU coach Vance Law, a former big league player and son of 1960 Cy Young Award winning pitcher Vern Law, suggested he try going to Utah State in hopes that school would accept his credits from SVU. Again, however, Bowen was turned away. He went back to BYU and sat out a year.

After his 12-moth hiatus Bowen made the team and played in 21 games, starting seven, in his junior year of eligibility. He batted .262 with two homers and 11 RBIs.

Going into Saturday’s three-game series finale with rival Air Force Academy, Bowen was batting .342 with eight doubles, three home runs and one triple for the Cougars (19-13, 6-5 Mountain West Conference). In splitting the first two games with the Falcons, Bowen went 6-for-9 with three RBIs and had five putouts.

“He’s a darn good player,” Pontonio said of Bowen.

Pontonio traveled to Cullowhee, N.C., last weekend to watch BYU play Western Carolina. Bowen didn’t know his former coach was in attendance, but after the game Pontonio, wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat, shoved his ticket stub toward the unsuspecting Bowen and asked for an autograph. Bowen looked up and recognized Pontonio. It was the first time Pontonio had seen Bowen since the youngster left Dalton High.

“He hugged me, his mother (Claire) got teary-eyed, his dad (Charley) shook my hand,” Pontonio said. “I really felt good that I made the trip up there. And Michael had a great game. He went 3-for-6 with five RBIs. He had a double off the wall and a grand slam in his last at-bat.”

Two days after playing at Western Carolina, Bowen and the Cougars opened a two-game series in Pullman, Wash., against Washington State. Then it was back to Provo for the Air Force series.

But if there’s one thing about Michael Bowen, he doesn’t mind traveling to play baseball.