Michelle Berthiaume
Sports Editor Emeritus
Records are set to be broken. This year, one Keene State College athlete exceeded all expectations and etched her name in the record books. Freshman Mariah Crisp, the ace pitcher for the KSC softball team recently broke the single season strikeout record, previously held by Lindsey Blood with 193. Crisp currently has 202 strikeouts, making her the first pitcher in KSC history to eclipse the 200-strikeout mark in one season.
When it comes to her accomplishments, Crisp doesn’t take sole responsibility.
“I couldn’t be where I am without my team. They obviously contributed to a lot of this success that I had this season,” Crisp said.
One main contributor to Crisp’s success this season is senior captain and catcher, Nicole Dupuis. Head coach of the KSC softball team, Charlie Beach said, “I think that Nicole Dupuis catching her, with her imagination and her softball intelligence contributed a lot to Mariah’s success as far as location and different kinds of pitches go. Nicole is really a genius at that.”
Although Mariah Crisp certainly didn’t come here to break records, her success and effort has not gone unnoticed. Nicole Dupuis said, “You don’t play a sport to beat a record. Beating a record is something that comes along with the sport and Mariah worked hard in order to do that. She pitched through some tough games and was able to shut people down.”
Dupuis added, “Coming in as a freshmen and having that responsibility put on you that you are our only pitcher and knowing that we are going to need you in our tough games is hard. As a freshmen, that’s a lot of pressure.”
On top of adding her name to the Keene State record books, Crisp also found her name atop the statistical leaderboard for the Little East Conference. She capped off the Little East season leading the league in ERA (1.32), opposing batting average (.206), innings pitched (148.0), strikeouts (202) and wins (17). Crisp was even recognized on the national level for division three softball.
Crisp is currently tied for tenth in the country for strikeouts. She’s also ranked 11th for strikeouts per seven innings with 9.6. And as far as earned run average goes, she’s ranked 20th in the country. Crisp said of her national rankings, “It doesn’t feel real to me really. I never expected to be ranked so high. I didn’t think I was that good.”
Crisp was also recently honored by the Little East Conference for her stellar freshman season. She earned honors as the LEC “Pitcher of the Year”, “Rookie of the Year” and was named a member of the All-LEC first team. Charlie Beach admitted that Mariah Crisp exceeded even his expectations.
He said, “I had expectations that she would do well. I did not expect her to become the rookie of the year, pitcher of the year and All-LEC first team. We were discussing it and we don’t remember anyone ever doing that.”
Beach added, “I am so pleased for her. That’s all I can say. I don’t know how much more I can express it.”
As far as the future goes for Mariah Crisp, more hard work and dedication will be necessary for her success. Nicole Dupuis said, “If she stays healthy and works out in the offseason, she’ll be even better than she is now. But she really has to put her nose to the grind stone and just work hard at it.”
Over the summer, Crisp will join a U23 softball team where she will compete in tournaments throughout the offseason. Although she has played summer softball in the past, she said this year is a little different for her.
Crisp said, “I am not trying to get recruited for colleges anymore so I don’t have to play in as many tournaments. College softball is a lot compared to what I did in high school so I need to give my body a break so that I don’t get burnt out.”
Charlie Beach added, “As long as she can stay healthy, her future is very bright. I know what people are going to do to stop her. But we are going to have to get a cast of characters around her that are going to be able to support her.”
Another key component to Crisp’s future successes at Keene State College will be how she works with the younger catchers on the team. Nicole Dupuis said, “She’s going to have young catchers coming up and she needs to work with them and learn how to call her game. It’s going to be an effort on a lot of people’s parts in order for her to be successful.”
Mariah Crisp’s list of accolades and accomplishments stretch far and wide throughout her softball career. But she said that breaking the single season strikeout record at KSC is at the top of the list. “This is by far the best accomplishment of my softball career because I didn’t expect to do as well as I did,” Crisp said.
Michelle Berthiaume can be contacted at
mberthiaume@keene-equinox.com