Strictly x Strib Varsity Spring Tour: Mariah Anderson shines for United South Central softball

For the first stop of the Strictly x Strib Varsity Spring Tour, we drove two hours from Minneapolis to a small city in Minnesota that’s less than 20 miles away from the Iowa border. Why, you might ask? To watch one of the greatest pitchers in Minnesota high school softball history, Minnesota State Mankato commit Mariah Anderson.

Anderson is on pace to set the state all-time record for strikeouts, and it quickly became clear to me why this is the case. I knew her fastball reaches up to 63 mph, but seeing it in person really emphasizes the little reaction time hitters have at the plate. It takes a blink of an eye for her pitch to reach the catcher’s mitt. That’s not even mentioning her nasty off-speed pitches, which make her even more difficult to hit.

In United South Central’s game Thursday, April 30, against Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, we watched Anderson pitch a complete shutout with 19 strikeouts and hit a single as well. It takes just one inning of watching Anderson pitch to realize how elite she truly is, and I’m excited to see how she finishes up her senior year.

Strictly x Strib Varsity

The story and video here are part of a partnership between Strictly Minnesota and the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Strib Varsity brand. Learn more about this partnership here.