With the 2025 Extra Elite 100 starting three weeks from Monday (May 23, 2022), there’s a pretty good chance you’ll once again see standout infielder and catcher Anna Hinde from North Carolina in the Top 10 of the class.
Anna, who was ranked #2 nationally in last year’s 2025 Extra Inning Softball player rankings, continues to up her game with her excellent overhand velocity (over 70 mph), exit velo (74 mph-plus) and pop time which has been measured by college scouts consistently in games under 1.75 seconds.
The freshman attends Charlotte Christian High in Charlotte, North Carolina where she excels academically with a 4.5 GPA and started varsity as an eighth grader last year to help her team win the North Carolina Class 4A state title and earn Extra Inning Softball 1st Team High School All-American honors as an Infielder.
This Spring, Anna has continued to up her game and began the year leading her team in all major offensively categories including a .613 batting average, a .667 on-base percentage and seven home runs and 20 RBIs with no errors at shortstop in the team’s couple of weeks.
Not only is the young but fast-rising player putting up the stats and results, she’s also impressing some of the top coaches and scouts in the game who have witnessed Anna’s abilities and come away impressed.
Two-time National champion at the Univ. of Florida and All-American pitcher Lauren Haeger feels Anna has what it takes to be a great in the sport.
“Anna is one of the most hardworking young women I have ever seen!” Lauren begins. “She is a great teammate and will selflessly do anything to take care of her teammates and pitchers. Her dedication to this sport, her academic gifts, and her drive to be the best at what she does are all setting her up to thrive at the highest level. You have to be different to play at the highest level and Anna is that perfect different Division 1 softball is looking for.”
Jenn Salling, a member of the Canadian National Team and former Washington All-American, already sees greatness in the young North Carolina star.
“I am completely impressed with Anna’s level of maturity,” Jenn begins. “Her ability to process information and execute what is being asked (as quickly as she does) I find is rare for someone her age. Very quickly it became evident to me how passionate Anna truly is in becoming an elite level softball player. Her teachable spirit, passion, commitment, discipline and softball IQ are rare personality traits.”
The student-athlete has previously written for Extra Inning Softball as a blogger including these well-received articles (click on the title to access): Inside Pitch: 2025 Extra Elite 100 Star Anna Hinde… “The Value of Attending College Camps” and also Inside Pitch: 2025 Extra Elite 100 Infielder/Catcher Anna Hinde… “My Takeaways from the Oklahoma Prospects Camp”.
Today, she addresses what respect and love she has for softball and what she has done to give back to the game…
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I went to a college camp a couple years ago and the head coach passionately declared that, as softball players who want to play at the collegiate level, we each have a responsibility to honor those who paved the way before us every time we step onto the field.
She also reminded us that we must make the game better by respecting the game and investing in the next generation while emphasizing that no one is too young to make a difference.
On the way home that day as I reflected on her words and the passion with which she spoke, I was moved to find a way to “make the game better”.
Aside from the obvious ways we can all make the game better such as being a good teammate, playing with good sportsmanship, working to become a better athlete and performing well in the classroom, I wondered what more I could do to make a difference.
Shortly after this camp ended, our sport (and the world) shut down due to the pandemic. With this coach’s words still echoing in my mind and longing for connection as I was missing the game, I decided to reach out to some younger teams within the Team North Carolina organization and see if there was any interest in working together via Zoom doing Strength & Conditioning as well as Question & Answer sessions.
I was fortunate to connect with Team NC Bowman (2009) and Team NC Newell (2008). We worked together for several months once or twice a week via Zoom, getting to know each other and having a great time working out and talking softball. Once softball resumed in the summer of 2020, I was able to catch a couple games and see them all in action.
As a high school freshman playing on a national level 18U team, our travel schedule is intense, as is my training schedule and college camp schedule. Add in a rigorous academic load along with school basketball and softball and you can imagine how little free time I can find.
But I was longing for more… I missed working with the younger teams so I reached out to Coach Brian Bowman and asked if he would give me the opportunity to spend a weekend with his team at their March tournament.
*** Scroll down to read more from Anna…
