One hitting the ball softly and early, perhaps (6)
I believe the answer is:
player
'one hitting the ball' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'softly and early perhaps' is the wordplay.
'softly' becomes 'p' (short for piano, musical term for softly).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'perhaps' is an anagram indicator.
'early' with letters rearranged gives 'layer'.
'p'+'layer'='PLAYER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for player that I've seen before include "Performer" , "Participant in sport or game" , "Game's participant" , "Actor; sportsman" , "Actor - footballer?" .)