GREENVILLE, S.C. – Erskine graduate Zack Bowers has been chosen as the 2018-19 Conference Carolinas Comeback Athlete of the Year award recipient.

In its sixth year, the Comeback Athlete of the Year award recognizes a Conference Carolinas student-athlete who participates in a conference-sponsored sport that has suffered a significant injury and comes back to make significant contributions to their team after recovering. 

Nominees were selected and then voted on by the Conference Carolinas head athletic trainers. 

“Zack is the perfect example of what it means to be a Conference Carolinas student-athlete,” Commissioner Chris Colvin said. “He fought through adversity and came back even stronger than before, setting a new career-best in strikeouts in his redshirt senior season en route to also earning his degree.”

A redshirt senior right-handed pitcher on the Erskine baseball team out of Lugoff, S.C., Bowers had surgery after the 2017 season to repair a torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL). Bowers tore his UCL in Erskine’s last game of the Conference Carolinas Baseball Tournament in 2017.

Bowers sat out the entire 2018 season as part of his UCL recovery process, and he worked tirelessly to return at a high level in the 2019 season.

Bowers did just that, earning first-team all-conference honors. He finished the 2019 campaign with 84 strikeouts in 77.2 innings pitched. Bowers made 13 starts on the season and finished with a 4-4 record.

Comeback Athlete of the Year Winners

2019: Zack Bowers, Erskine

2018: Trey Matthews, Southern Wesleyan

2017: No selection

2016: Avery Wallis, Lees-McRae

2015: Nolan Albrecht, Belmont Abbey

2014: Amber Weaver, Barton