Avery Stutts (middle) signs her papers to play softball at the University of Memphis during a signing ceremony at Scotland High School on Monday.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Multiple members of the Scotland softball team came to the ceremony to show their support for Stutts on Monday.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Athletic Director Patrick Williams (top left), Head Coach Adam Romaine (next to Williams), Assistant Coach Neil Smith (next to Romaine) and Principal Laura Bailey (next to Smith) were among many Scotland representatives to attend the ceremony on Monday.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —Scotland senior Avery Stutts announced her commitment to play softball at the University of Memphis two months ago in mid-September. The Scots held a signing ceremony for her on Monday afternoon at the Scotland High School media center.
Stutts’ dominance on the mound for the Scots over the course of her Scotland career is well documented. She is coming off of a 3A Player of the Year award from her junior season that saw her go 19-2 on the mound with a 0.68 ERA over 124 innings of work while striking out 193 batters as opposing batters had a batting average of just .120 against Stutts last season. For her Scotland career, she has an ERA of 1.09, a win-loss record of 40-7 and has accumulated 439 strikeouts over 309.1 innings of work.
She also has been terrific at the plate, hitting a ridiculous .417 with five homeruns, 22 runs batted in and also scored 11 runs last season. Over her three years at Scotland, Stutts has hit .271 with eight homers and 38 RBIs while also drawing 36 walks with an on base percentage of .497 and a slugging percentage of .854.
The Scots as a team went 19-2 last season while going undefeated (12-0) against conference opponents on their way to earning the No. 1 seed in the east region of the NCHSAA 3A playoff bracket. Stutts and the rest of the Fighting Scots will begin their 2025 season on Feb. 26 in Dunn against Midway, a team they did not face last year.