AFFTON — Meghan Fowlie began the week with a severe case of the flu.
The Incarnate Word senior outfielder was also mired in a lengthy hitting slump, which made for a rough daily double.
"Didn't feel too good, wasn't hitting good either," Fowlie said.
By Thursday night, she had turned both of those maladies around.
The diminutive Fowlie had a pair of hits including a two-out single in the seventh inning to propel the Red Knights to 3-2 win in a small school softball battle at Lutheran South.
IWA (5-3) won for the fifth time in six games after dropping its first two contests of the season.
The Red Knights used some late-inning magic from Fowlie and sophomore Erin Meriwether to win the well-played contest, which featured a nifty pitching duel between IWA flamethrower Sophia Otten and Lutheran South senior Danielle Duke.
Lutheran South (5-4) had won four of its previous five entering the contest.
But IWA pushed across a run in the final frame thanks to some two-out bingo off the bat of Fowlie.
"My approach was to stay ready for the pitches I was looking for," Fowlie said. "And just to get on base to do something to help my team."
Fowlie entered the game with just two hits in 11 trips to the plate for a .182 average
"I felt like I hadn't had a hit since the (preseason) jamboree," Fowlie joked. "I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong until now. It was a mechanical thing and I was also getting into my head a lot."
Fowlie worked her way through the struggles at the perfect time.
She laced a hard drive that bounced off the glove of the third baseman for an infield hit in the tell-tale seventh. Fowlie went to second when the late throw to first got away.
Meriwether, the leadoff hitter, followed with a first-pitch drive to the left side that brought in Fowlie with the go-ahead run.
Otten did the rest by setting the side down in order. Bound for the University of Evansville, Otten allowed two runs on six hits. She fanned six.
But the afternoon belonged to Fowlie, who was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief after the contest.
Not only did she feel 100 percent healthy for the first time in a week, but she believes she has rediscovered her hitting stroke.
"I figured things out and I applied that to this game," Fowlie said.
Fowlie hits in the No. 9 spot in the batting order, but coach Mike McMullen said there are no weak links in his lineup.
"I don't like to call her a No. 9 hitter," McMullen said. "I like to have a good hitter at the bottom of the lineup."
Fowlie plays softball for fun. Bowling is her strength and she hopes to play that sport at the University of Central Missouri down the road.
Meriwether had three of her team's six hits with singles in the third and fifth. She ambushed Duke right from the start in that final at-bat.
"I figured the first pitch would be a strike so I wanted to go after it," Meriwether said.
Fowlie and Meriwether also ripped two-out hits in the third to tie the game 1-all.
Both teams have been playing well of late and both harbor serious postseason hopes.
Ashlynn Maness and Kayla King had two hits each for Lutheran South. Kaitlyn Moore gave the hosts a 2-1 lead with a run-scoring hit in the fifth. Ava Courtwright got the ball rolling with a run-scoring single in the first.
"A game like this should help us down the road," Lutheran South coach Linda McQueen. "That's what I told them. Things like this we learned from. We battled against a good pitcher and did a lot of good things."
Read about some of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area's top high school fall softball players as the season gets under way.
Meghan Fowlie (5) of Incarnate Word singles and runs to first base against Lutheran South at Lutheran South High School in Affton on Thursday, September 12, 2024. Paul Baillargeon