Anna McCrary never imagined being the center of attention.
After all, she has spent nearly all of her softball career as an outfielder and has grown quite comfortable impacting the game from right field.
But 2011 has been a transition year for McCrary.
Not only is this McCrary’s senior season with the New Hope High School slow-pitch softball team, but she also is playing a position — pitcher — that has pushed her out of her comfort zone and into a spot where the tempo of the game is in her hands every pitch.
“It was nerve-wracking,” McCrary said of when she first learned she pitch. “The first time I was shaking. I learned throughout, but at first it was ball, ball, ball. I would barely get a strike.”
McCrary showed Thursday she has matured into a calming presence and into a pitcher who can control the strike zone.
McCrary had three hits and three RBIs and allowed only eight hits and two walks to lead New Hope to a 10-2 victory against Columbus at Lady Trojan Field.
Lauren Holifield had a solo home run, Kaitlin Bradley, Mackenzie Harvey (two RBIs), and Erin Stanfield (two RBIs) had two hits. Abby Wilson also had an RBI for New Hope (19-7), which avenged a 14-13 loss to Columbus on Aug. 16.
McCrary has come a long way since that game. On Thursday, Nos. 11 and 15 done in white chalk bracketed her in the pitching circle to commemorate Senior Night. Throughout the stands, New Hope fans had yellow softball patches with McCrary’s No. 11 and the No. 15 of the team’s other senior, Ashley Byrd.
All of that hype might have flustered another pitcher, especially in one of her final times playing slow-pitch softball in a setting where she has been a regular since 2006.
But McCrary put all of that out of her mind and showcased a knack for putting the right amount of arc on her pitches and then mixing and moving the height and location of her tosses to keep hitters off balance.
“Now I am more comfortable with myself and I can place the ball more,” McCrary said. “I am not as nervous, but it is still there.”
McCrary suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this year that prevented her from helping the New Hope fast-pitch softball team in the Class 5A playoffs. As she worked to get back to 100 percent, McCrary thought she would find a familiar place in the outfield. Much to her surprise, New Hope coach Tabitha Beard told her she was going to be her pitcher.
“I have always been an outfielder, and I wanted to get right back into it,” McCrary said. “I had to do what was best for my team. I couldn’t do what was best for myself. I had to do what was best for others.”
McCrary hadn’t pitched a day in her life before she took the circle for the first time. She credits her coaches for helping her develop into a surprisingly effective pitcher.
Beard praised the work assistant coach Laura Lee Holman has done with McCrary to help her grow from a pitcher who couldn’t find the strike zone consistently to one who is reliable and whose work ethic is contagious. She said that shouldn’t be surprising because McCrary has been a fixture in the program since she started playing.
“She has remained constant,” Beard said. “Their senior shirts say, ‘We are strong enough.’ To look at that girl and to see how much adversity she has overcome to be where she is today is amazing.
“We joke about the fact I am not the easiest person in the world to play softball for, but I also know getting through this makes them stronger and it prepares them for another level of softball or life or whatever they want to participate in. Anna is the epitome of all of that. She is tough, she is a leader, she has a smile that makes me happy to be here and want to come here.”
McCrary’s next goal will be to help New Hope win its fifth state title in a row and 14th overall. The first step will come next weekend, and McCrary is eager to face that challenge. She knows it will be “nerve-wracking,” but she plans to be the rock in the center of the field her teammates can look to for strength.
“The team has come miles up the road from where we were,” McCrary said. “When it all came together and when we all work together as a team, it is amazing what we can do.”
NeNe Bardley had two hits, Whitney Kyles, Porchia Brooks, Kadaryal Ledbetter, Teauna Edwards, Jasmine Butler, and Kierra Erby (RBI) had hits for Columbus, which will play at 2 p.m. Oct. 8 at Madison Central in the first round of the state playoffs.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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