The Scotland softball team enters the 2025 season with the ultimate goal being a state championship. Here, the team celebrates at home plate after Avery Stutts (17), last year’s 3A Player of the Year, hit a solo home run in a game last season against Richmond in Laurinburg.
File Photo
LAURINBURG —By almost any measure, the past few seasons of Scotland softball have been a big success. They have won three straight conference titles and gone a combined 60-11 (36-1 against SAC opponents) over those three seasons. Last year in particular saw the Scots dominate just about everyone in their path as they went 19-2 (12-0 in conference games) with an insane +179 run differential.
With the No. 1 seed in the east side of the 3A state playoff bracket, six players who made the All-District team (juniors Dawson Blue, Ramsey Hale and Addison Lewis as well as seniors Madison Dixon, Addison Johnson and Avery Stutts) and the 3A Player of the Year in Stutts, it seemed as though nothing could possibly stop the Scots from rolling to a state championship. However, after crushing Swansboro in a 15-0 blowout during the first round, Scotland was stunned by No. 16 seeded Havelock during the second round in a 1-0 final, abruptly ending their title dreams. Heading into 2025, the Scots are using the loss as fuel in their quest to finally bring home the state championship they’ve been elusively searching for.
“Not only is it on our minds as coaches but the players have really voiced their opinions about it for the past three or four months,” Head Coach Adam Romaine said. “They’re all hungry and know what the job is this year; the major goal is to win a state championship, and this team feels like they have the ability to do it.”
Personnel wise, the two big changes in Scotland’s lineup come from the graduation of 1B Lindsay Locklear and 2B Nateya Scott. In 2024, Locklear had a batting average of .303 with 22 RBIs while Scott batted .328 from the plate with 16 RBIs.
Sophomore Addison Ratley is the most notable addition to the Scots lineup for 2025 and someone that Romaine feels is capable of helping fill that void. Otherwise, Scotland has the fortune of returning the majority of their team from last season, which gives Romaine a ton of optimism.
“We got some good core pieces in the program that will be able to step right in the shoes of Lindsay and Nateya,” Romaine said. “Having that core of juniors and seniors is a big piece of this team. I feel like we’re going to be very hard to beat as long as we produce a run because our two losses last year were 2-0 and 1-0 which should tell you that you can’t win a game without producing a run.”
The biggest reason Romaine feels great about his team’s chances in the event of scoring at least one run is because of Stutts. Stutts gave Scotland 124 innings over 21 games with just 12 earned runs allowed, good for a staggering ERA of 0.68. She gave batters fits all year long, holding them to a batting average of .120 and obtained 193 strikeouts.
Coming off of a historic campaign, Stutts is keeping her approach the same heading into the season: continue to dominate and attack her opponents. That said, a state title is the biggest thing on Stutts’ mind as it is for the entire team.
“My mindset is going for the ring, we all have the goal of getting to the big game,” Stutts said. “I’ve worked hard in the offseason and I’m ready to get back out there, my mentality is still the same, be a dog and go at them.”
Johnson, last season’s Offensive MVP, headlines a group of five girls that played together on the Scots’ volleyball team this fall (Kinsey Hamilton, Blue, Hale and Lewis being the others) under Romaine. That built in chemistry is a big reason Johnson has a good feeling about Scotland’s season.
“Coming out of volleyball we already have a strong foundation of trust and how we know each other,” Johnson said. “We know how to talk to each other and bring the best out of each other, I’m excited for the season because we have a lot coming back.”
The Scots will have their first two games of 2025 on the road, starting with Wednesday night at Midway before heading to South Brunswick on Friday. Both games will start at 6 p.m.
The team’s home (and conference) opener is scheduled for next Tuesday, March 4 against the Hoke County Bucks at 7 p.m. Their full season schedule can be found on MaxPreps.