Chapel Hill softball hopes to build around Camryn Anthony

The Chapel Hill Tigers have first piece of the puzzle. Pitcher Camryn Anthony can throw strikes, sit batters down and understand how to manage a game from inside the circle.

Anthony struck out double-digit batters in two wins against Northern Vance and one loss to Carrboro.

“It’s great to have somebody with so much experience on the mound,” coach Charlie Lancaster said after a March 10 loss to Carrboro. “We just need the defense to support her pitching. She had a lot of strikeouts, she was very sharp on all her pitches tonight, so we were very pleased at that.”

The Tigers (4-10, 2-6 Big 8 3A) are inexperienced, though. Chapel Hill has made mistakes on the basepaths and in the field that have kept it from taking the next step. Too often, they kill rallies and momentum.

But these are the things that come along with having just one senior, Tessa Chatain, on the roster.

Chapel Hill has to take the good with the bad and build around Anthony.

“Ultimately, we had some problems on defense, and that let us down in some of the game,” Lancaster said. “But it’s early in the season, and we have a really young team, so I think we will learn and get better as the season goes on.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Chapel Hill softball hopes to build around Camryn Anthony."