Paige Adair is an uber-competitive redshirt senior who has dominated on the mound for several seasons.
Last year, Adair won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Pitcher of the Year and also snagged Second-Team All-Region honors. She led the conference in wins with 20 and in strikeouts with 119.
There was little doubt for what Adair would want to do when growing up. The young pitcher fell in love early-on into her playing career with the sport that would obsess her for the rest of her life.
“Since I started playing I was kind of a softball nerd. My parents would make fun of me, because I had them record all of the big college softball games on TV and I’d know evey lineup that was playin, and I would literally study it all the time. [Playing in college] was always a dream of mine,” Adair said.
Adair initially struggled to garner attention from college scouts, however. She grew up in Aztec, New Mexico which has a population of only around 6,000 people and does not receive much attention in general. Adair was undeterred nonetheless, and started her college career playing for Pima Community College in Arizona.
“I wasn’t recruited very heavily, I got a couple Junior College looks but I was from a really small town so you don’t have a ton of exposure. I always wanted to come to Mesa right outta high school, it just didn’t work out that way. I knew some girls from my hometown who came here to play, and I have a bunch of family in Junction and Delta. But, JUCO was fun. It was a grind but it definitely set me up and gave me an experience to excel here at CMU,” Adair said.
Adair has developed into one of the program’s all time best pitchers. Adair started to stand out after a COVID-19 shortened junior season.
Her ERA has dropped steadily every season from 3.10 during the 2019 season to a baffling 1.30 in the current 2022 season. She has also accumulated a team-leading 16-2 win-loss record this season.
Adair continues to lead the conference in multiple categories such as ERA as she posted a 1.30 this season and opposing batting average with .143. With these stats and her consistently strong performances, she was named the RMAC pitcher of the year for the second season in a row.
“Paige works hard and is a gamer. I believe her competitiveness and her will to win have helped her xcel. Her consistency has improved over the years, and she has really bought into our team philosophy at CMU. Her first year, we had two other stud pitchers in McKenzie Surface and Kimbri Herring who ended up being All-Region Honorees. That first year, she did not pitch a lot [as a reliever pitcher], but she got to know what our program and the Division II level was like,” Head Coach Mercedes Bohte said.
Adair plans to continue to be involved with softball after graduating with a Sports Management Degree. She hopes to stick around the team as an assistant coach and then follow wherever her coaching career takes her. Adair wants to reciprocate the same positive impact she received from coaches into another generation of softball players.
In the meantime though, Adair and the Mavs focus on completing their goal: winning a National Championship.
The softball team is currently competing in their RMAC postseason tournament and hope to draw a bid for the regional tournament where they look to go on a run towards the Division II National Championship.
