PORTLAND — John Eisenhart had to laugh.

The Cheverus High School softball coach was talking after the Stags’ season-opening win over Thornton Academy when something caught his eye. He pointed toward the dugout, where star pitcher Addison DeRoche and two teammates were dancing in front of a propped-up phone.

“She’s doing a TikTok right now,” he said.

It was a moment of whimsy, but it also provided a glimpse into how DeRoche is approaching her junior season at Cheverus. Her sophomore season was challenging, as she balanced growing fame and hype as a national prospect with the pressures of the college recruitment process, all while trying to play up to the remarkable standard she set her freshman year.

This spring, though, the college question has been answered. The pick, Florida State, has been made, and the decision is settled. DeRoche doesn’t have to focus on playing up to someone else’s expectation.

This spring, it’s the high school softball season that has the junior ace’s full attention. And she is going to make sure she enjoys it.

“I’m just savoring every moment,” DeRoche said after striking out 12 Thornton hitters in a five-inning no-hitter. “Knowing your future helps you be more present now. … I’m in the Cheverus High School softball season, and I can fully focus on that.”

The new approach is paying off. DeRoche has struck out 95 batters in 37 innings, with only six hits allowed and a 0.38 ERA, and is also hitting .462 with a 1.559 OPS while being frequently pitched around.

“I can play with confidence, like I always should be able to,” she said, “but also (I’m) not trying to control the outcome as much, realizing results will happen, and I’m just trying to be present in every moment and every pitch.”

‘You feel pulled a lot of ways’

That wasn’t always the case last year. DeRoche was terrific, finishing the season with a 12-1 record, 0.43 ERA, 177 strikeouts in 81 innings and a .533 batting average with seven home runs.

But the season wasn’t easy. DeRoche was fielding offers from NCAA Division I championship contenders, the first Maine softball player to be so targeted, and having to face the daily question of where she wanted to spend her softball future.

“You don’t know. You (think) ‘I could go here, or here,’ and then this coach wants you to go here,” she said. “You feel pulled a lot of ways.”

There was more for her to deal with, and a growing degree of hype and attention. After a brilliant freshman season in which she led Cheverus to the Class A state championship, DeRoche faced amped-up pressure last spring, and everyone following the sport expected her, and by extension her Cheverus team, to dominate.

No-hitters and perfect games became expected. Allowing a run made people wonder “what happened?”

“Expectation-wise, it was different than her freshman year because she kind of came on the scene, nobody knew about her,” Eisenhart said. “Next, she wins Gatorade (Player of the Year) and then everyone knows about her. That’s a whole different mentality for a 15-year-old kid.”

DeRoche acknowledged the burden of trying to play up to expectations and stay on top of her college recruitment, and that she looks back on last year with some “regret.”

“I think I was just so worried about, like, ‘Oh, if they get a hit off me, if I give up a run, if I strike out,'” she said. “That’s going to happen. And people are going to hit you. … I’ve gained a lot of perspective this year.”

DeRoche has always known the key was to tune out the noise. Three years in, she’s never been better at doing it.

“Controlling what I can control has been really big for me,” she said. “(I’m) not trying to hear what everybody else says, because yes, of course when you’re committed to a big school, people are chasing after you.”

‘She’s always working’

The college commitment is out of the way, but the work ethic that landed it hasn’t changed.

“She’s working out 365 days a year,” said Westbrook coach Brian Ross, who has known DeRoche since she played in the town’s Little League. “Non-stop lifting weights and perfecting her craft, traveling miles to do pitching lessons out of state.”

Eisenhart said when a Cheverus practice ends, DeRoche’s training is just getting started.

“She’ll go to practice two hours with us, then she’ll go run on the track for 5, 6 miles,” he said. “Then she’ll go home and do six or seven hours worth of homework. The only thing (is), I want to make sure she gets her sleep.”

Teammate Anna Kennedy-Jensen said she’s as impressed by DeRoche’s work ethic as she was two years ago.

“There is not a day that she takes off,” she said. “If she’s not in the cages or pitching, she’s in the gym. She’s always working on her game, no matter what.”

The latest mission is turning herself into the kind of player who will be ready to make the college jump. She was a prolific pull hitter as a freshman, but she’s been improving her ability to hit the ball up the middle and to the opposite field. Her riseball overwhelmed hitters as a freshman, but now she’s widened her arsenal to include a tailing fastball and a changeup.

DeRoche said she had a conversation with Florida State coach Lonni Alameda laying out what she could improve.

“Just mixing speeds and mixing locations. Up, down, side to side,” she said. “Developing stronger power and everything. … I do work on it. But also, at the end of the day, I want to win and I want to dominate.”

That determination is even sharper this season. The Class A South championship game last year was only the second time in her high school career that DeRoche left the field as the losing pitcher, following a 1-0 defeat against eventual state champion Windham.

Through the offseason, the loss stuck with her. The player who’s always supplied her own motivation now had another source.

“I think about it often, you know, I replay it,” she said.

She’ll look to bring her team back to that game — and this spring, that’s the only goal on the list.

“Being fully committed to one place, and knowing the people I’m going to play with, it is a weight lifted off your shoulders,” she said.

“I’m really glad I went through it. But I’m also really glad to have this period of my life for my junior and senior season, to just move forward and really enjoy every second of it.”