Michelle Berthiaume
Sports Editor
She collects herself on the mound. Places the bright green ball in the pocket of her glove. Stares down her catcher, waiting for the signal. She keeps the same determined look on her face, composed. She envisions, sees the ball flying through the air: moving, blazing, curving, dropping, right past the batter in the box. She winds up. It’s all one swift motion that she looks like she’s been practicing her entire life. She launches. The ball zips through the air, right into the catcher’s glove. Just like she pictured.
Portrait by: Michelle Berthiaume / Sports Editor
Her name is Mariah Crisp, and any fan of Keene State College sports should remember this name because for the next four years, you will be hearing it a lot.
From Greenland, N.H., Crisp attended Portsmouth High School, where she pitched for four years on the varsity squad. Her achievements at Portsmouth High read like a resume: 41-14 career record, .70 earned run average, all-time strike out leader with 535 career strikeouts, 18 shutouts, six no hitters, two state championships, three-time team MVP, two-time New Hampshire first team All-State selection, Louisville Slugger All-Region and All-American selection.
But a humble Crisp admits that these accomplishments don’t mean much to her. “I almost didn’t care about that stuff at the time. Once I realized I was getting a really good reputation, people knew who I was and it made me want to do better. I just wanted to be the best,” Crisp said.
In fact, Crisp said that her fondest memory of her days as the Portsmouth High School ace pitcher were not the All-State or All-American selections or the 500 plus strikeouts; it was leading her team to a state title her senior year. And Crisp didn’t just start the game on the mound. She also hit in the only run of the game to knock off Portsmouth rival, Kennett High School, 1-0.
A proud father, Greg Crisp said that humble has always been a word he has used to describe his daughter. “She’s never been a kid who’s conceited or cocky. That’s just Mariah. She is just worried about being a good team player. When she takes the circle, she’s out there to help her team win,, no matter what comes with that.”
Now a member of the KSC softball team, Crisp looks to be the front runner for the starting pitching job on a young squad that just graduated four pitchers: Courtney Savoie, Sara Stockilinski, Samantha Pratt and Emily Albin.
But head coach of the softball team at KSC, Charlie Beach, said he isn’t sure who will be his top pitcher this season. “We don’t know anything about our pitching staff yet. They are all first year pitchers. Whoever is the most effective is going to get the most work,” Beach said.
When speaking of Mariah Crisp’s strengths, there was certainly a lot to say. Coach Beach said, “Her pitching velocity will get anyone’s attention. Beyond that, if you start watching spins and ball movement, that would really get your attention.” On top of a fastball that flies past batters at almost 60 miles per hour, Crisp has plenty of other pitches in her repertoire that opposing teams may have a tough time hitting.
One of these pitches is a splitter. According to senior captain and catcher for the KSC softball team, Nicole Dupuis, this is a very rare pitch for a softball hurler to have.
“She has this new pitch that I’ve never seen before, the splitter. When I first met her, I actually missed a lot of them. It moves so different and I didn’t know what it was going to do. It totally fools you. It’s a nasty pitch,” Dupuis said.
Beach agrees. “The splitter: nobody else has that weird pitch. I don’t even know why she’s got it. I didn’t teach it to her,” he said.
Beach continued, “It will help her until other teams figure it out. Then she’s going to have to have another pitch to counter with. And the screwball is good for that. That’s what makes her screw so powerful. Because it counters the splitter when they figure out what to do with that pitch.”
All the talk about this amazing splitter and Nicole Dupuis doesn’t even think that’s her best pitch. “The splitter is great and that’s her go to pitch. But I personally love her drop. I’ve never seen a drop work as well as hers does. There’s an expression where ‘it falls off the table’ and it really does. It’s coming in knee height and it literally just drops at the last second,” Dupuis said.
Coach Beach added, “Sometimes as a coach, people show up with stuff. And you just have to get out of the way and let them do it.”
Along with her arsenal of tricky pitches, Mariah Crisp has a simply undeniably high level of composure on the mound.
“She is a cool character under pressure. She doesn’t get rattled. I can’t say I have ever seen her get rattled. She’s a kid where the bases can get loaded on her but she will work herself out of a jam time and time again,” her father, Greg Crisp said.
Coach Beach said this composure will surely be useful to her throughout her college career.
With all of these other strengths, Mariah Crisp said that her composure level is certainly near the top of the list.
She said, “Everyone calls me ‘poker face’ because I never show any emotion. I think that’s my biggest strength because batters are scared of me.”
According to her father, another one of her greatest assets is her hard work and dedication to the game of softball. “I couldn’t be more proud of her. I think she has a lot to offer. She has worked very hard at what she does,” Greg Crisp said.
Crisp added that once she became serious about softball, she was pitching eleven months out of the year. “I take four weeks off in September. I have been training since my freshman year at Elite Sports Performance in Portsmouth, three days a week. And I would pitch one or two days during the offseason,” she said.
Although the list of strengths goes on and on, a modest Crisp is the first one to admit where she falters. She said that offensively, she is not as good as she’d like to be.
Greg Crisp agreed, saying, “She’s never really had to hit. She always played up a division when she was younger. So someone always hit for her because she was so young. If anything, she lacks confidence at the plate.”
But then again, at their first scrimmage of the year against Amherst College on Saturday, Feb. 23, Mariah Crisp hit a homerun during her first collegiate at bat. Greg Crisp said, “The kid surprises everybody.”
One may ask: how did Mariah Crisp end up at Keene State College?
“Absolutely, positively, she was my number one recruit this year. Everyone got sick and tired of hearing ‘Mariah, Mariah, Mariah.’” Beach said.
He added, “She comes with serious credentials but she still has to prove herself. She’s working at a different level now. Now she’s playing on what I consider to be one of the top programs in the country. We are mentioned in the top 35 all the time. Out of 300 schools, I think that’s a very good place to be.”
When Mariah first began looking at college’s, KSC was not on the top of her list, she said.
“I wanted to play Division I at first. But then I realized that they own you and I didn’t want that. I wanted to be able to have a life outside of softball,” Crisp admitted.
She added, “My pitching coach always told me that when you step on a campus, you’ll know that’s where you want to be. And I guess that’s kind of what happened with Keene [State College].”
Greg Crisp added that Mariah and Beach established a “rapport” while he was in the process of recruiting her.
“I think what it came down to is that Charlie really struck a cork with her that gave her that comfort level that made her feel like this is where she wanted to be,” Greg Crisp said.
He added, “After going through this whole process, I’m happy with Keene. I think this is the perfect fit for her. I’m happy that’s where she ended up. She’ll get a good education. And it’s a good softball program. I honestly can’t see her anywhere else.”
Expectations are high for Mariah here at KSC. With high expectations come big responsibilities. Nicole Dupuis said, “She’s definitely going to be a big help to the program. I think she’s going to be a great player at Keene State and carry them through some tough innings this year.”
If Mariah Crisp’s past is any indication of her future, she has a very bright one ahead of her here at Keene State College.
Michelle Berthiaume can be
contacted at
mberthiaume@keene-equinox.com
