Lowey starting to accept loss of eye

TYLER LOWEY

By MARK HUNTER
Kamloops Daily News

As much as anything, Tyler Lowey just wants to get back to baseball.
Lowey, an infielder with the TRU WolfPack, has lost his right eye after being struck with a foul ball while batting during an exhibition game against the Douglas Royals on Sunday at NorBrock Stadium. He underwent surgery Sunday night at Royal Inland Hospital, and is scheduled for more surgery Saturday in Calgary.
Lowey is trying to stay positive, but the thought of life with only one eye has been weighing heavily on the 20-year-old infielder.
There are a lot of questions, but he knows at least one thing — he wants to get back on the diamond again some time.
“I’m getting a glass eye in a month,” Lowey said Thursday from Calgary. “And if I’m fully healed, I want to get back training in January. I know a couple of the coaches (at the University of Calgary) and I might go out with them.”
Lowey stayed in Kamloops until Wednesday, when he and his parents drove home to Calgary.
He met with two doctors on Thursday, and they told him that he will have to go in for surgery tomorrow to have remaining pieces of the dead eye removed.
Lowey said he’s starting to feel a little better, even if he doesn’t know what’s to come.
“I had a couple of down days when it happened, but I’m starting to accept it,” he said. “I don’t know what (the future) is going to be like.”
Lowey was starting his fourth season with the WolfPack, which plays a spring Canadian College Baseball Conference season and a fall exhibition season. Sunday’s game was part of the WolfPack’s Thanksgiving Classic tournament, which brings an end to the fall season.
Lowey was at bat in the WolfPack’s 7-2 loss to the Royals on Sunday when the accident happened.
“I fouled a 3-2 fastball off my face,” Lowey recalled. “It was a high pitch, and I was out in front of it . . . it hit me square in the eye.”
Lowey went down, but had no idea how bad it was.
“It was the most pain I’ve ever been in,” he said. “I really didn’t think it was going to be that bad of an injury.”
The reality started to settle in following surgery on Sunday night.
Lowey spent the next two days in Kamloops, then met with his WolfPack teammates Wednesday for a scheduled team photo at TRU Gym before leaving town.
“It was pretty emotional — I was leaving to go home right after it, and this was the last chance to see my teammates for the next couple of months,” Lowey said. “They’ve been great, sending me texts and phoning me . . . some are going to come out and see me.”
It won’t be the last the WolfPack sees of Lowey — he plans on returning to Kamloops next fall. He was barely a month into his first year in the bachelor of journalism program, and is eager to return to finish his degree.
And, of course, play some baseball.
“I’m coming back in the fall,” he said. “I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do, but I’m going to be a part of the team.”

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca