Fifth-Grade Slugger Representing Mets in MLB Competition

Written by Audrey Levine

Allison Lowery, a fifth-grade baseball enthusiast at Hillside Intermediate School, now is a finalist to represent the Mets in Major League Baseball’s Pitch Hit and Run competition.

The competition, sponsored by Major League Baseball, is a free event for boys and girls ages 7 to 14, as they compete in four levels of competition with pitching, hitting and running.

Lowery is waiting to see if she will qualify for the National Finals, to be held at the MLB All-Star Game in July, after winning first place at the Mets Team Championship in mid June.

Allison’s mother, Sandi, said her daughter first got involved with the program a few years ago when Bridgewater Baseball and Softball ran a local competition.

“We didn’t know anything about it, but Allie loves softball, so we took her to the competition where she came in first that year,” she said, “and advanced to the Team Championship for the Yankees that year.”

Now, Lowery said, this is her daughter’s third time advancing this far in the competition.

“Ever since that experience, we have been going every year,” she said.

“It’s cool because I saw some kids from previous years at the competitions,” Allison Lowery, 10, added.

Sandi Lowery said the competition consists of participants throwing a ball at a pitching target, hitting a ball off a batting T and running from second base to home plate. The faster and farther participants go in each competition, the more points they get.

This year, Allison Lowery came in first in the local competition held in Manville in April. Winners in each age group advanced to the sectionals.

At the sectionals in May, Lowery won first place again.

“We had to wait to see if she would qualify for the team competition, and we finally received an email that she made the Mets Team Championship,” Sandi Lowery said. “She was one of the top three girls ages 9 and 10 from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.”

At Citifield for the team championship, Lowery said, her daughter came in first again, and she now represents the Mets in the competition.

But now, Lowery said, Allison’s score will be compared with 29 other girls her age across the country who represent Major League Baseball teams. The top three, she said, will head to the Nationals.

They are expected to find out on June 30 whether she makes it to the Nationals.

“It has been suspenseful because you don’t know if you are making it to the next round until you get that email,” Allison Lowery said.

Lowery said she enjoyed being at Citifield, and even got to see herself on the Jumbo Tron.

“I enjoy the Team competition because we got to sit in the Mets dugout, and we got to run on the field and warm up in the outfield as we competed,” she said. “We were the only ones in the whole stadium.”

“(And) when I came in first, I went on the baseball field for the pregame ceremony before the Mets game, and had my name announced,” she added. “I was on the Jumbo Tron. That was really cool.”

Aside from the competition, Lowery plays softball for the 12U Bridgewater Tournament Softball Team, for which she is the short stop and lead-off batter.

“We just got back from a softball tournament in Ocean City, New Jersey, where she received MVP for one of the games,” Sandi Lowery said.