Paxton High School left-handed pitcher Grant Stewart recently signed a scholarship to pitch for the Florida State University Seminoles.

“Signing day was a really big day,” Stewart said. “When I woke up, I knew it was going to be a good day. That feeling of putting pen to paper is just unreal. That feeling, knowing that your are going to play at major D1 college. It’s a feeling like no other, and it’s something that I wish everyone could experience.”

Growing up in Paxton, Stewart said baseball and basketball have been all he has every done.

“I came home from the hospital with a bat and ball in crib, so I guess it’s been kind of breed it me,” Stewart said of his love of baseball. “Growing up in Paxton, it was either baseball or basketball. I started playing basketball just for something to do, but it grew in to more than that. Baseball, though, has always been my passion.”

Stewart said growing up he was always a Gator fan and never imagined he would wind up in FSU.

“I grew up a Gator fan and my grandfather’s headstone is a gator head,” Stewart said. “I got 43 D1 offers after returning from pitching with Marucci Sports national team, but Florida State wasn’t one of them. They got in kind of late, but I thought I would at least take a visit.”

That one visit was all it would take.

“When I got on the campus, I fell in love with it,” Stewart said. “I knew that it was where I was supposed to be.”

His senior year at Paxton, Stewart posted a 6-0 record with a microscopic 0.16 ERA with 99 strikeouts in 45 innings pitched.

“The thing I take the most pride in with my pitching, is being able to hit my spots,” Stewart said. “I constantly challenge myself and my coaches do too, to hit all my spots. I hate to walk a batter.”

Stewart’s father, Tim Stewart, works at Evans Barnes Golf Course.

Stewart will move down to Tallahassee this weekend and begin individual summer workouts for the Seminoles.

“I’m very excited,” Stewart said. “It will be a very busy weekend.”