Maiben Becomes Valuable in Chapman Pitching Circle

Jessamine Maiben didn’t expect to do much pitching for the Chapman softball team this season. For one thing, she was still recovering from an arm injury suffered late last season. For another, she had been used primarily as a stopgap in the circle by the Panthers.

So Maiben, a two-time NCAA Division III All-American in the outfield, figured she again wouldn’t figure in Chapman’s pitching plans.

But with the transfer of Division III player of the year Christy Guidorizzi to Texas, the Panthers no longer had an ace. Suddenly, Maiben was needed for more than her speed, glove and lofty batting average.

After a slow start, Maiben has been picking up steam and has helped stabilize the Chapman pitching staff. She and Brittany Carlson, a freshman from San Clemente High, are the No. 1 starters and Katie Smithson, a freshman from Troy, is No. 3.

Maiben has been especially impressive lately. She hasn’t given up a hit in her last two appearances.

Monday, she pitched a perfect game in an 11-0 victory over Wisconsin Stout, a game called after five innings because of the mercy rule. Saturday, she pitched a no-hitter in a 2-0 victory over Santa Clara in the consolation final of the Cal State Hayward tournament.

“She’s done a great job,” Chapman co-Coach Janet Lloyd said. “You might expect her to slowly come back and maybe gain strength, but all of a sudden we are pitching her against the best teams.

“UC Davis is probably the best team we’ve played all year and we only lost, 4-2. Take away the five errors we made in that game and it would have been 2-2.”

Last season, Maiben didn’t get much of a chance to prove her mettle. She was 13-4 with a 1.47 earned-run average but rarely got to pitch in games that counted.

An exception was at the Division III national championship tournament, where her four-hit shutout of Allegheny kept Chapman alive in the double-elimination format.

She started the title game against Trenton State the next day but didn’t get an out in the first inning before being replaced by Guidorizzi.

Trying to save Guidorizzi for a possible second game, the Chapman coaching staff moved Maiben back into the pitching circle for the second inning. However, Guidorizzi was back by the third. Chapman eventually lost, 7-2.

Maiben understood the situation: Guidorizzi was a dominant pitcher; she finished with 527 strikeouts in her two-season Chapman career.

Maiben is 7-2 with a 2.03 ERA, and continues to be outstanding at the plate, along with many of her teammates. She’s batting .449 with 23 runs batted in. The Panthers have a .380 average as a team after reaching as high as .415.

Chapman (23-6) hasn’t lost to a Division III team this season and is ranked third in the West Region.

Maiben came close to leaving the Panthers before the season. She considered transferring to Division II Portland State to be closer to her family and boyfriend in Oregon.

Maiben considered a transfer to Oregon State after her freshman season for similar reasons. “It seems like I like to change my mind a lot,” she said.

Now, she says, she has settled on staying at Chapman, close to her best friend, catcher Jenni Bankus.

Besides, next fall she’ll have a bonus visit from her boyfriend. Richard Rideout is a tailback for the Willamette (Ore.) football team, which plays at Chapman in September.

“I don’t know which side I’m going to sit on either,” Maiben said.