The Mustangs:
Coach Todd McNeely (6th season, 86-31 at East)
Last season: 23-4, SPC regular-season champs
Last 5 seasons: 86-31
Last 10 seasons: 136-79
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
GRANITE QUARRY — East Rowan has won the last two South Piedmont Conference regular-season softball championships.
A three-peat isn’t out of the question, but the Mustangs probably will have too many new faces in the lineup to win the league again. East entered the season with zero experience as far as varsity pitchers, so that’s the most pressing concern.
McNeely believes that on paper, South Rowan is the SPC favorite.
“But we’re not too worried about what everyone else has right now because we’re still trying to figure out what we’ve got,” McNeely said. “We’re still searching a little bit. Three weeks from now we may be putting a completely different team on the field. We’ve got 23 girls, so we have some healthy competition. We’ve got freshmen pushing for playing time. We just have to figure some things out on offense and defense.”
East’s 23-4 team in 2025 boasted eight players who racked up postseason accolades, but only two of those are back — shortstop Lily Kluttz and center fielder Jordan Dry.
McNeely pointed out that the Mustangs graduated a class of softball players last spring that won 77 games during their stay in Granite Quarry.
Kluttz and Dry are a good start toward being a solid team. Kluttz was South Piedmont Conference and Rowan County Player of the Year as a junior. She batted. 500. The Catawba recruit is a defensive anchor, packs surprising power in her 5-foot-5 frame and hits in the clutch.
Dry is leaning toward playing college volleyball, but she has more than enough ability to play college softball. She can smoke lasers over the fence and saves her teams runs with her wheels and agility in center field.
Kimberly Troublefield, a veteran player headed to Chowan, could be a third senior star for the Mustangs. The plan is for Troublefield to move to catcher this season. She has murdered softballs in the early going, including a homer against West Rowan.
Junior Regan Williams is being counted on as the No. 1 pitcher. She put in a lot of work in the off-season to get ready.
“We lost everything we had in the circle, so the opportunity is there for Regan,” McNeely said.
East has a freshman pitcher, Charlotte Sammons, who transferred from Gray Stone.
Tall freshman Bristol Smith is a promising pitcher, as well, but Smith suffered a stress fracture in a foot that ended her basketball season early.
“We’re not going to try to rush her back,” McNeely said. “She may not pitch at all this season. You’ve got to be careful with stress fractures.”
Maicy Miller takes over for her graduated sister, Kori, at third base. She got at-bats last season and came through several times.
The Pfister sisters are likely to handle the right side of the infield. Kaley Pfister, the Rowan County Golfer of the Year back in the fall, is set to play first base. Ashlyn Pfister, a freshman, looks like the starter at second base.
The leading candidates to join Dry in the outfield are the Efird twins, Morgan and Emma, Addison Barrier and Gillian Barber.
“We’re not going to have the kind of power up and down the lineup that we had last season,” McNeely said. “Last year, if we got behind two runs early, it wasn’t that big of a deal because we knew we could get it back. Runs will be harder to come by against the good teams this season, so our defense is going to be key. We need to be close to perfect on defense.”
East’s non-conference schedule looks even tougher than the SPC portion of the slate. There will be a handful of easy SPC games, but every non-conference game could be challenging.
In the early going, East (2-2, 1-1) has grabbed breezy wins against Gray Stone and Robinson, but lost 4-1 to North Davidson (Dry homered) and dropped a 5-4 thriller to West Rowan. Williams pitched well enough against West to give the Mustangs a chance, but they couldn’t pull it out.
Graci Barber, Jordan Dry, Lily Kluttz, Kori Miller, Camryn Perkins, Eleni Miller, Chloe Shank, and Madi Tigert
