Arizona catcher Sydney Stewart may have been the most underrated portal pickup in the country. Stewart was a very good player during her first two years at Washington, but she has emerged as a star for the No. 12 Wildcats this year. She put an exclamation mark on it with the final Big 12 and D1 Softball Player of the Week honors of the regular season.
Stewart was an offensive juggernaut for the Wildcats in their series sweep at Houston. She had a .714 batting average (5 for 7), an .818 on-base percentage, and a 1.571 slugging percentage over the three games. Two of her five hits were home runs, and she drove in three runs. She also drew four walks. She went 3 for 3 with a walk during Sunday’s series finale.
Stewart made the NFCA All-Pacific Region Third team last year, but this is her first conference award of any kind. It’s also her first honor by D1 Softball.
She becomes the third player from Arizona to win Big 12 Player of the Week in the team’s first season in the league. The Wildcats have taken a total of six player or pitcher of the week honors this season. The conference does not offer a freshman or rookie of the week honor.
Kaiah Altmeyer took the award in the opening week of the season. Miranda Stoddard was honored after the second and sixth weeks of competition. Devyn Netz won Pitcher of the Week honors twice, including last week.
Stewart’s two home runs put her at 16 this season. That’s second on the team behind Netz (17) and fourth in the Big 12. It’s a dramatic increase from her time in a Husky uniform when she had seven home runs over two years. Her 0.31 home runs per game this year rank 63rd in Division I softball. She had 0.08 home runs per game in 91 games (82 starts) at UW.
Despite standing 6-foot-1 and presenting a large strike zone, Stewart leads the Wildcats with 44 walks. She has walked 0.85 times per game in 52 games, ranking 15th in the country. That’s an increase from 0.54 per game at Washington. She had 49 total walks in 91 games as a Husky, leading the team with 27 last year.
She sports a .376 batting average this season, an improvement of 25 points over the .321 she had last season. She is first on the team and second in the conference with a .548 on-base percentage. Her 56 RBI trail only Netz (58) on the Wildcats and rank third in the Big 12.
Stewart and her team get started in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Tournament in Oklahoma City on Thursday, May 8 at 3 p.m. MST. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
The Big 12 in the rankings
USA Today/NFCA poll: Texas Tech (11), Arizona (12), Oklahoma State (23); RV: UCF (1)
ESPN.com/USA Softball poll: Texas Tech (11), Arizona (13), Oklahoma State (23); RV: UCF (1)
D1 Softball: Texas Tech (9), Arizona (10)
Softball America: Texas Tech (9), Arizona (14)
RPI: Arizona (11), Texas Tech (19), Oklahoma State (20), UCF (29), Arizona State (34), BYU (46), Baylor (58), Iowa State (62), Kansas (64), Houston (83), Utah (129)
Conference standings (winning percentage): Texas Tech (.833), Arizona (.708), Iowa State (.625), Oklahoma State (.591), ASU (.583), BYU (.542), UCF (.500), Baylor (.458), Kansas (.250), Utah (.208), Houston (.182)
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics