By Mike London

Salisbury Post

MISENHEIMER — Pfeiffer University center fielder Landry Stewart is still winning the battle with a .500 batting average heading into Thursday’s USA South Championship Series against NC Wesleyan.

That’s not a battle many softball players will ever get a chance to fight, especially at the collegiate level.

Stewart finished at .495 during the regular season, but she bumped that up to .504 during Pfeiffer’s six USA South Tournament games. She is 57-for-113 for the season. She has scored 45 runs in 40 games, with 37 steals in 39 attempts.

Stewart, the USA South Player of the Year, is a former Carson Cougar. The 5-foot-5 lefty slapper looks harmless, but she is so skilled and so quick that it is almost impossible to throw her out if she puts the ball on the ground and gets it past the pitcher. She batted a ridiculous .610 — yes, .610 — for Pfeiffer during conference play this season.

“We started out with a really tough non-conference schedule and it paid off for us when we got to our USA South games,” Stewart said. “That’s when we got rolling as a team. My job is simple as the lead-off person — get on base, give us a spark.”

Stewart started playing softball seriously when she was 7 years old, on travel ball teams coached by her grandfather, Lex Graham, who coached A.L. Brown basketball back in the 1980s.

The softball bug bit her hard in 2018 when she was in middle school and watched her older sister, Rylie Stewart, get on a roll as a softball pitcher and lead the Carson Cougars to the Western Championship Series.

“Watching Rylie and her teammates, that’s when I decided I absolutely wanted to be a softball player and I started dreaming about being a college softball player,” Landry said.

The Stewart sisters had divergent skill sets. While Rylie had the head and the heart for pitching, Landry was blessed with the raw athletic talent in the family. She could fly on the bases and in the outfield. Speed kills, and you can’t teach it. You have it or you don’t.

To take full advantage of her wheels, Landry made a transition to being a slapper just as COVID was threatening to bring high school sports to a halt. She only got to play six games as a freshman, 15 as a sophomore.

“There was a lot of training to do and a lot of hours of work, but slapping became a natural thing for me,” she said.

Stewart made a name for herself at camps and in tournaments between her sophomore and junior seasons at Carson. Any time they put a stop watch on her at a camp, jaws would drop and offers would start coming in, even from Division I programs.

She committed to USC Upstate.

Stewart exploded as a Carson junior in 2022, slapping .500 for the season with 35 runs scored and making All-State teams. Her senior season for the Cougars in 2023 was an All-State encore — .473 with 32 runs scored.

USC Upstate had seemed like the ideal fit during the recruiting process, but Stewart never really got comfortable there. Homesickness was part of it. She was back home after a semester, still taking college courses, but trying to figure out what was next as far as athletics.

She is really close to her family, which includes her father, Shane Stewart, who has taken South Rowan to the playoffs in his first season as head softball coach.

Rylie is married and has a baby girl now, and Landry really wanted to play the role of helpful, doting aunt. There was also a boyfriend factor. Landry and Cameron Burleyson, a Catawba College baseball catcher who went to Carson, have been dating for quite a while.

“Four and a half  years now,” Landry said. “Last spring, when I wasn’t playing softball, I got to see just about every Catawba baseball game. This year we haven’t seen each other as much. I think I’ve seen Catawba play twice. He’s come to see Pfeiffer play once. We’re always practicing or playing, so it’s been tougher. But coming back home has been a wonderful decision for me.”

Playing softball for Pfeiffer means playing for living legend Monte Sherrill, who was happy to add a Division I transfer with blinding speed to his roster.

“I was coming from a D-I school to a smaller school, but there were still a lot of nerves to get over at first and we started the season playing some of the best teams we’ve played,” Stewart said. “But Coach Sherrill has a way of giving you a lot belief in yourself. There was a game early on, and I came to the plate with the bases loaded, so it wasn’t the ideal spot for a slap hitter. But Monte gave me the sign to stand-and-swing. I came through with a two-run single and that really boosted my confidence. He’s a great coach, and I’m not just talking about preparing us for games. He talks to us every day about how life is bigger than softball. He has given me back my love for the game.”

A 4-for-4 effort against Mary Baldwin was a game where everyone started realizing Stewart could be a star. She had a dazzling doubleheader against a Greensboro team that she considers to be Pfeiffer’s biggest rival.

When Coach Sherrill found out Stewart had been voted the USA South Player of the Year, he called her parents. That gave them a chance to record her reaction when she found out the good news.

“You try to win games and play your hardest, but you never really think about things like Player of the Year,” Stewart said. “I know my family is proud of me. That’s the best thing.”

Pfeiffer’s opening game in the USA South Tournament at Jack Ingram Field in Misenheimer was a hard-fought 1-0 win against William Peace. Stewart started the bottom of the first inning by slapping a ground ball to shortstop. She beat it out. Then she stole second. She scored the only run of the game on a hit up the middle. Pfeiffer has an outstanding pitcher (Emma Bullin was USA South Pitcher of the Year), and she made that lone run stand up.

Stewart is a junior academically and is a P.E. major. She plans to become a teacher/coach.

Pfeiffer is 33-7 and takes a 21-game winning streak into Thursday’s 3 p.m. home game.