Moments before an International League contest with the visiting Louisville Bats on June 24, Hunter Owen of the Indianapolis Indians trotted out to third base at Victory Field.  

Seven years had passed, almost to the day, since the 25-year-old Evansville native’s last game there.  

“You’d think that you don’t get nervous, or you don’t get the chills, or butterflies in your stomach,” recalled Owen.  “But taking a deep breath and looking around was pretty special, especially since I hadn’t done that since I was 17 or 18 years old.”  

Nearly a month would pass before Owen played another game.  

There’s probably pine tar and diamond dust in the DNA of Stephen Hunter Owen.  His father, Steve Owen, played first base for the University of Evansville.  An older brother, Tyler Owen, was a Murray State University infielder.  Hunter grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox while his dad and big brother rooted for the archrival New York Yankees and Evansville-born first baseman Don Mattingly. 

“I’m probably the only Red Sox fan in Indiana,” Hunter said with a smile.  “My brother and my dad were both huge Yankee fans.  I’m sure because of Don Mattingly and all that stuff.  So me, bucking the system, I was a Red Sox fan.  A lot of people laugh at me for it.”  

The 5-foot-11, 195-pound Hunter played two sports at Evansville’s Mater Dei High School.  In football he was a cornerback on defense and a slot receiver on offense, earning all-state honorable mention as a senior.  His high school baseball coach was former major leaguer Jeff Schulz.  

Schulz and Don Mattingly were teammates when Evansville Reitz Memorial won the 1978 Indiana High School Athletic Association title at Bush Stadium in Indianapolis.  An outfielder, Schulz went on to play for the Kansas City Royals (1989-1990) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1991).  He stroked a single in his first big-league at-bat against Nolan Ryan of the California Angels, baseball’s all-time strikeout leader.  “He’s a very knowledgeable guy,” said Owen.  “He had a lot of cool stories to tell us regarding his trip in the minor leagues, and obviously his first hit off Nolan Ryan.” 

Mater Dei opened the 2012 campaign with nine losses in its first 12 games.  Going 15-4 the rest of the way, the Wildcats landed a berth in the IHSAA Class 2A championship game.   “It was kind of crazy, because we started off terrible,” said Owen, a senior that year.  “And then we were just one of those teams that got hot late.  In the playoffs, we were clicking on all cylinders.”

At Victory Field on June 16, 2012, Owen batted third and played shortstop in the title game against Northfield High School of Wabash.  “It’s something you dream about your whole life,” he said.  “That was my first trip.  The first time you see Victory Field, you can't think of anything else more that you wanted to do in your life.”

In his first at-bat against Ryan Keaffaber, Northfield’s starting pitcher, Owen flied to center.  Mater Dei trailed 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Owen singled to short.  Northfield was up 3-1 when Owen came to the plate in the seventh with a runner on first and no outs.  He lashed a triple to right-center that narrowed the deficit to 3-2.  But Owen died at third when Keaffaber retired the next three hitters.  Northfield went on to win by a run.  “For it to end so abruptly, and in a loss, it was kind of shocking and definitely disappointing,” said Owen.  “But it was a fun experience.”

Later that year Owen trekked just over a hundred miles from Evansville to Terre Haute and enrolled at Indiana State University.  “I didn’t really get a whole lot of attention,” he said.  “Indiana State was pretty much the only team that came after me and offered me any [scholarship] money.  I had my mind made up that I’d rather go there.  I liked that it was two hours from home, so my family could come see me.”  

Another incoming freshman that fall was Ryan Keaffaber, the winning pitcher in that 2012 state championship game.  “He always talked about the triple I hit off him,” said Owen, “and I always talked about him leaving me on third with no one out.” 

The Sycamores decided to redshirt Owen for 2013.  “At the time I was pretty upset,” he said.  “My dad got a lot of angry phone calls that fall.  But I’m glad that it happened.  Honestly, I was just not talented enough.  I wasn’t ready to play at that level.  Looking back on it, I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me.” 

Added to Indiana State’s roster for the 2014 season, the 20-year-old Owen appeared in a mere dozen games.  He had three hits in 14 at-bats for a .214 average.   “I talked to my dad about possibly transferring,” he said.  “It was definitely something that I needed to take a step back and look at all my options.” 

Owen discussed his future with Mitch Hannahs, then in his first year as Indiana State’s head coach.  “He said he wanted to keep me after that season,” Hunter recalled.  “He thought that my best baseball was ahead of me.  He’s one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met.  I’ve got the utmost respect for him.  I’d jump in front of a car for that man.”

Electing to stay at Indiana State, Owen played sparingly at the outset of the 2015 season, mostly as a pinch-hitter.  Midway through the year, the right-handed hitter began to see more action.  He finished with a .344 average (33-for-96) in 31 games.  “I was getting a lot more comfortable,” he said.  “I felt like that was a huge year for me, and I took a huge leap forward in my baseball career.”  

Owen went into 2016 with high hopes.  “I had one thing in mind, and that was going to a conference championship and going as far as we could.  But I also wanted to get drafted.  I wanted to play professional baseball my whole life.”

Indiana State finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference that year.  Owen hit .350 with six homers in 56 games and was named to the all-conference team as an outfielder.  He was in Green Bay, Wis., playing for the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters of the Northwoods League, when he found out he’d been selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 25^th round of the Major League Baseball Draft. 

“I had my phone in my sock (and) out of nowhere, my phone starts erupting.  I open it up, and I had a text from my best friend and roommate:  ‘Hey man, congratulations!  I can’t believe you're a Pirate,’ and blah-bluh-blah-bluh-blah.  It was pretty special, a lot of fun.” 

Owen signed with Pittsburgh on June 16, 2016.  With the West Virginia Black Bears of the short-season New York-Pennsylvania League, he batted .257 in 52 games.  “When you go into pro ball, it’s much different than what you think it is.  You have high expectations that it's a glamorous life.  You think there's money there.  It’s definitely a grind.  I would say it's a huge adjustment.”

Spending most of 2017 with the West Virginia Power of the low-A South Atlantic League, Owen upped his average to .292 with 11 homers in 83 contests.  He followed that with a .262 season in 2018 for the Bradenton Marauders (high-A Florida State).  He was fourth in the FSL with a .464 slugging percentage.  His 18 homers (the second-highest single-season total in Bradenton history) ranked second among Pittsburgh farmhands. 

Owen opened the 2019 season with the Altoona Curve of the Class AA Eastern League.  Through 68 games, he was hitting .298 with a league-leading 15 homers.  After a home win on June 19, Altoona manager Michael Ryan informed Owen that he’d been promoted to Indianapolis.  Two days later in Pawtucket, Owen played third base and batted second for the Indians in a 4-3 win over the PawSox.  

His first game at Victory Field took place on June 24.  “I got upwards of 40 or 50 text messages, calls, emails, and Facebook stuff with people congratulating me and telling me they want to come see me,” said Hunter, who lives in Fishers during the offseason.  “Seeing that support system is really humbling, and it makes me feel really blessed.”  

In the fifth inning, a pitch from Louisville starter Vladimir Gutierrez drilled Owen in the left wrist.  “Originally, I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal,” he said.  “I’d been hit in the hand three times in that month and I kind of brushed it off.  I thought I could play through it.”

Owen remained in the game, but gave way in the seventh to a pinch-hitter.  “I tried to battle through it,” he said.  “It was like a deep bone bruise, and it felt like you didn’t have any strength in that hand.  It was awful.”

X-rays proved negative, but the injury landed Owen on the 7-day injured list.  “I was confident that I was gonna get back soon and it wasn’t gonna be a drastic change, and I wasn’t gonna miss the rest of the year, or anything crazy like that.  It was a bummer, definitely, but sometimes that’s how it works.”

Owen came off the IL in time for a July 18 contest at Victory Field against the Syracuse Mets.  He celebrated his return with a two-run homer in the third inning of a 9-1 Indianapolis victory.  “I feel like I’m a little kid again – that I get to actually hit, and field, and throw, and have fun,” he said.      

 Through his first dozen games with Indianapolis, Owen was batting .275 (11-for-40) with two homers.  Judging by his hitting and versatility – in addition to the hot corner. Hunter plays first base and both corner outfield posts – he appears to have a shot at the major leagues.

Despite his initial successes at the Triple-A level, Owen remains circumspect.  “I feel like if you look too far ahead, you can get caught up in other stuff and it can maybe slow you down in your path,” he said.  “So taking it day-by-day is kind of my motto.  If I can get a little better each day, eventually it’ll be my time.”   

PBR Indiana Correspondent Pete Cava is the author of “Tales From the Cubs Dugout” and “Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014.”