Addison DeRoche of Cheverus delivers a pitch during the Stags' 5-0 win over Bonny Eagle in the Class A South final on June 16 in Gorham. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

Hours before she and her Cheverus softball team were set to take the field in the Class A South championship game, Addison DeRoche went through a final round of fine-tuning.

She went for an hour-long walk, clearing her mind. Then she called Jen Hoar, her pitching coach in Massachusetts, for a FaceTime session to go over the reasons for a lack of spin on her pitches in the previous round against Gorham.

Then, that night, she helped the Stags advance to the state final. She took a perfect game into the seventh, allowed one hit, and struck out 15 in a 5-0 victory over Bonny Eagle.

It was DeRoche summed up: The best pitcher the state has seen, with a drive and determination to find ways to become even better.

“Addison will do whatever it takes to win,” Cheverus coach John Eisenhart said. “She’s that type of competitor.”

For the third straight year, DeRoche was brilliant. She struck out 258 batters in 104 innings, allowed only 21 hits, and gave up just four earned runs for an ERA of 0.27.

While her dominance was nothing new, the year and season were a time of special success for the junior star. She struck out 58 batters in four playoff outings to lead Cheverus to its first undefeated season, allowing the Stags to become the first Class A team without a loss since Scarborough in 2019.

Last fall, she committed to perennial NCAA contender Florida State, becoming the first Maine player to land with a power conference program.

For her performance and her growing national profile, DeRoche is our choice as the Varsity Maine Female Athlete of the Year.

Addison DeRoche of Cheverus drives the ball into the outfield during her team’s 3-2 victory over Hampden Academy in the Class A state title game June 20 at Central Maine Community College in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Staff Photographer)<?xml version="1.0"?> Purchase this image

“It definitely was better (than last year), and I definitely felt more like myself,” said DeRoche, who threw three no-hitters of five innings or longer and also hit .417 with four home runs. “Once winter hit, I was really on the grind. I started going to the gym in the morning before we had captain softball practices in the afternoon. And I just started to get into a routine and appreciate every day.”

Eisenhart said DeRoche has showed that type of work ethic since she arrived as a freshman.

“When we do conditioning, she’s always like, ‘Let’s do one more,'” Eisenhart said. “She gives me a little wink, ‘Let’s do one more.’ The ‘one more’ mentality, she makes us all better.”

Eisenhart said DeRoche has managed to make the state’s best pitching repertoire better as well. Her rise ball has been the talk of the sport since she arrived and left hitter after hitter flailing at pitches at their shoulders, but this year it was only one of the pitches batters had to anticipate.

“Her drop ball this year is a great pitch for her,” Eisenhart said. “(The) changeup is becoming elite, and the drop ball is becoming elite as well.”

It also helps when a driven player is a little bit ticked off. DeRoche was on the verge of bringing the Stags to the state championship game last year until Cheverus was knocked out by Windham, 1-0, in the South final.

The moment the game ended, DeRoche was eager to get back this year and win it.

“I was really upset for, like, a week,” she said. “ I think I needed it, too, to kind of teach me a lesson and teach me how to fuel the fire and to keep going.”

That introspection is common. When DeRoche describes her thought process, there’s a lot of focus on being centered and present in the moment.

She has a pitch-by-pitch approach, versus a week-by-week one. She wears a WHOOP band on her wrist, allowing her to keep tabs on everything from heart rate to calorie intake to quality of sleep.

She journals, adheres to devotionals, and goes for runs and walks every day, helping to organize her thoughts, maintain her perspective and keep whatever pressure she’s feeling to a minimum.

It’s led her to a conclusion: Whatever the sport, and her rising fame, can throw at her, she’s ready for. In the state final, when Hampden Academy put the tying run in scoring position in the seventh inning, she said it to herself out loud, over and over.

“The entire game, I was saying, ‘You’re built for this,'” she said. “I know what I’ve been through. … I’m built for the journey. I’ve worked my butt off to get here and put myself in this position, so why not have confidence in myself that I did build this myself?”