Meet Flagler softball’s 17-year-old pitcher

By Christen Moon | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Flagler College’s softball team has a lot of new faces this year. The new additions include Erin Anderson, a freshman pitcher from Lake City, Florida.

Anderson isn’t your typical freshman. If things went according to plan, Erin would still be a high school senior; instead, she is a 17-year-old freshman pitching for a Division II team.

And not just any college softball team, but a team that has been to the NCAA National Tournament and has been ranked nationally.

Anderson fell in love with softball at a young age, thanks to her grandfather and father. Her grandfather was not only her first coach, but the man who influenced her to first pick up a ball, bat and glove.

After that, Anderson was “hooked” and would soon find softball consuming her life.

Many might think forgoing your senior season, graduation and the end of high school would be a hard decision, but Anderson said coming to Flagler early was the right decision.

She said she already had everything she wanted out of her high school career: a state championship.

“I didn’t really have a reason to say in high school,” she said, explaining that the players she won the state title with had already graduated and that it was time to move on.

Anderson chose Flagler College because of its beauty, and how close it is to her hometown. As far as softball goes, she was attracted to Flagler’s softball field and the coaching staff. She did everything she could to make sure Coach Kristen Overton knew she wanted to play softball for Flagler. Overton wanted her here, as well, saying she wasn’t only a great ball player, but also “just a genuinely good person. “

“She is really talented and her ball moves a lot,” Overton said. “She has the ability to be extremely successful at this level” because of her maturity level and the ability to shake things off before becoming too rattled.

So far Anderson has been pleased with her choice.

“So far my experience has been great,” she said. “It definitely has been an adjustment because things are so different and more difficult than being in high school … (but) it will only get better from here.”