By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — South Rowan junior Lexie Ritchie has a sense of humor.

An animal-lover and home run-lover, she jokes that she’s a girl from the middle of nowhere who will be playing college softball in the middle of nowhere.

Chowan University, the school Ritchie has committed to, is in Murfreesboro, about 250 miles northeast of southern Rowan. The population of Murfreesboro is roughly 3,000, about the same as Landis. Murfreesboro qualifies as the middle of nowhere because the nearest airport is located in Newport News, Va., 58 miles away. The closest North Carolina airport is Raleigh/Durham, about 100 miles away.

“I was looking for a small, Christian-oriented school (Chowan has about 1,300 students) and I’ve been to softball camps there,” Ritchie said. “Chowan has amazing coaches and players. Some people told me to wait, to make sure before I committed, but I have no doubt it’s the right place for me, so there wasn’t any need to wait as far as committing.”

She committed during the winter months as she waited impatiently for her junior season to get started.

Ritchie is well aware that an athlete she looks up to, former East Rowan star McKenzie Misenheimer, is doing really well at Chowan where she is the starting center fielder and a top-of-the-lineup hitter.

“I’ve been to games there, and I’ve talked to McKenzie,” Ritchie said. “She’s one of their best players. She’d be a senior my freshman year, and we’ve talked about car-pooling.”

While Chowan is a long way out there, softball has taken Ritchie considerably further away, all the way to the West Coast.

In 2019, Rowan Little League put together a 12U team that included two girls from Corriher-Lipe Middle School in Landis (Ritchie and Kynlee Dextraze). It was a whirlwind experience for her, six weeks of practices and games that culminated with Rowan winning the state, the region and the World Series in Portland, Ore.

At least one of the standouts (Kennedi Fisher) from what was Rowan’s second group of World Series champions moved away, but many are currently impacting local high school softball teams, including Salisbury’s Ashley Yang; West Rowan’s Arabelle Shulenberger and Riley Haggas; Mooresville’s Campbell Schaen, Lauren Vanderpool, Avrelle Harrell and Cadence Lane, and Cannon School’s Andie Evans.

Dextraze and Ritchie play for South Rowan. A third girl from the 2019 World Series team who would be playing for South Rowan, China Grove’s Kassidy Sechler, had her softball career interrupted by medical issues.

That World Series team ended the season with a parade and a trip to the White House to meet President Donald Trump.

“That time with Rowan Little League was something I’ve always been thankful for because most people don’t get to experience something like that at such as early age,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie was on the varsity as a highly hyped South freshman pitcher/infielder. Her achievements that season included pitching a perfect game against South Davidson. She was All-Rowan County as a freshman.

As an All-South Piedmont Conference sophomore, she batted .377 with two homers, eight doubles and 21 RBIs. She still pitches for South some, but as a 5-foot-3 bundle of energy, she doesn’t have ideal pitching size. It looks like her college future will be as an infielder. She usually plays second base for the Raiders.

She was named South’s team MVP for the 2023 season and excels in softball beyond the school season for the Carolina Cobras travel team.

“Lexie is a natural athlete and I’ve known that since I saw her when she was in the sixth grade,” South head coach Dean Mullinax said. “She is fiercely competitive on the field and has always been willing to put in the extra work because she never wants to let her teammates down. She has great softball instincts and the ability to absorb information and use it. She has the skills to move to the next level.”

South has made strides during the course of Ritchie’s career, although the Raiders have usually been in the middle of the pack in the South Piedmont Conference, trying to catch up with West Rowan, Central Cabarrus and Carson. This season, Carson has slipped after graduating a strong senior group, but East Rowan has emerged as the front-runner.

Ritchie had some adversity to overcome early this season when she slipped coming out of the batter’s box in the opening game against Cannon School and suffered a hip flexor injury. She played in a game with Central Cabarrus three days later — and a walloped a home run — but she reluctantly realized she was going to have to sit for a while to let the injury heal.

She missed about three weeks, finally returning to get two hits in the Raiders’ dramatic, 6-5 comeback win against Lake Norman Charter on March 21.

Even when she was hurt, Ritchie stayed upbeat and supported her teammates. Now she’s thrilled to be back on the field.

She still has a season and a half of softball to play for South, but she is already looking forward to becoming an exercise science major and playing ball for the Chowan Hawks.

Ritchie’s long-term goal is to become a physical therapist or athletic trainer.

“As hard as she competes in the classroom and on the field, she always keeps a smile on her face,” Mullinax said. “She has respected the game, her teammates and her community, and she has strong spiritual beliefs. Chowan will be better for her being there.”