At the women’s collegiate level, rise balls typically are thrown in a range of 60 to 70mph with the most dominant pitchers capable of speeds in excess of 70mph.
Although the rise ball has been popularized by Jennie Finch, who famously used it (among other pitches) to strike out some Major League Baseball players including Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, most effective softball pitchers use the rise ball in combination with other pitches.
Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman, are widely considered to be among the most dominant pitchers ever to use the rise ball as part of their pitching approach.
A similar image shown of a regulation softball pitched at the same speed (70mph) seems to show a decreasing upward trajectory, although the author describes the outcome nebulously as “the rise is not apparent”.
[7] Another study utilizes a theoretical physics approach to modelling the trajectories of various softball pitches, including the rise ball.