For freshman softball pitcher Kirsten Verdun the thrill of pitching comes from having the power to “single handedly keep the team in the game and control it.”That control comes from nine years of practice, developing her pitching arsenal. Currently, Verdun throws a screwball, changeup, rise ball and drop ball. But one of them stands above the rest.

“My best pitch is my screwball,” Verdun said. “It’s my go-to pitch for strikes and it sets up all my other pitches.”

But while it may be the most effective, it’s also the most difficult to throw, she said, because of the body position required to throw it. And when the pitch isn’t working as well as usual, it throws off the rest of her game.

“It’s hard to throw my other pitches because I can’t set them up [with the screwball],” she said.

Having a No. 1 pitch is vital for softball pitchers. Verdun’s teammate Bree Brown, who was the Big East 2010 Rookie of the Year, has been pitching for ten years and throws a rise ball, curveball, screwball, drop ball and changeup.

Brown said she uses the screwball, along with her rise ball and curve ball, to get ahead in the count, but singled out the rise ball as her best pitch. She uses it as her out pitch, she said, because it has good jump.

Verdun’s rise ball took two years to become as effective as it is today. According to her, the key to getting it across the plate is the pitcher shifting their weight back in order to get underneath the ball.

The rise ball is another one of Verdun’s out pitches because it expands the zone, helping her to get ahead in the count. It is also good against bunters and clappers because “it tends to pop up, which is what you want.”

Additionally, Verdun says her rise ball, which has the ability to jump a full foot at its best, confuses hitters because “it looks like a screwball, but goes straight up.”

Just as confusing is Verdun’s drop ball, which looks the same as her curveball, preventing the hitter from know what plane to expect the ball in.

Unlike the rise ball, though, Verdun said “throwing the drop ball is about getting on top of the ball and snapping the ball into the ground.”

The up-and-down movements also add another element that baseball players do not see, since the overhand delivery does not allow for those pitches to be thrown.

“In baseball, you can’t throw a rise ball or a drop ball so all the pitches are in the same plane,” she said. “But in softball you can, so the hitter doesn’t know where the ball will be.”

Brown also uses a drop ball and said she likes it because “it gets hitters to look at something low.”

Lindsey Dean, a senior and three-time Big East All-Academic player, has been pitching for eight years. Dean has three pitches: A changeup, drop ball and screwball.

Dean said she uses her drop ball as a first-strike pitch. When hitters face drop balls, they will oftentimes “miss, or hit the ground or ground out,” Dean said.

Her out pitches are her drop ball and changeup because they are the most accurate in her rotation.

She considers her changeup to be her strongest pitch, which is about two miles per hour slower than her other pitches.

“I’ll throw a changeup when I’m behind or ahead in the count,” Dean said. “I’ll usually throw it inside to keep hitters off balance.”

Verdun’s changeup, the pitch she has worked hardest on developing, is also one of her two out pitches because it is “hard for hitters to pick up.” Her confidence in the pitch allows her to throw it at any count.

And unlike baseball, different softball pitches frequently have identical arm motions, making them even more deceptive.

“[Softball] pitchers have the same release point for each pitch,” Dean said, meaning hitters cannot know what type of pitch is coming by looking at the pitcher’s movements.

For her changeup, Verdun does not slow her arm during the pitching motion.

“It’s important for keeping the hitter off guard,” said Verdun. “I throw a backhand changeup, so at the top of my motion my arm changes position and turns over and adds backspin to the ball and makes it flip downward.”

So with all the different pitches to think about, what’s going through the pitcher’s mind on the mound?

“During games I don’t talk to too many people,” Brown said. “I mostly zone in and when I’m at the mound I think about controlling the hitter.”

And really, that’s the thrill of it.