Cumiskey’s coolness has Gardner-Webb off to hot start
In 2017, it took until the end of March for the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs to win their tenth game. Just one year later, it’s barely the beginning of March and head coach Tom Cole’s team has already reached that threshold.
Two of the games in the “W” column from the team’s opening weekend came thanks to the heroics of senior Rachel Cumiskey, whose coolness under pressure led to two walk-off swings, including a moonshot of a home run that secured a win over the Hampton Pirates.
After her team earned their first win of the season against Western Kentucky the day before, Cumiskey and the Runnin’ Bulldogs came back twice from a deficit to Youngstown State and were again down by one run in the bottom of the seventh inning. An error allowed an unearned run to score and tie the game, and with one out and a runner on base, it was Cumiskey’s turn at the plate.
“I knew we were going to win that game the whole time,” Cumiskey said. “We had just played so well, and I just knew that somebody was going to get the right hit at the right time, whether it was me or one of my teammates. I knew it was going to happen. I was definitely prepared to be in that situation, and I wasn’t scared to be there. But if it wasn’t me, I knew it would be somebody else.”
Prepared and ready, thanks to some veteran insight and instincts, Comiskey hit a long ball to the opposite field. It landed for a double and allowed the winning run to score. “That was a little weird for me, because I normally pull everything,” Comiskey said later. “I just took it to right field, and I was pretty excited about that!”
“I’ve been in that situation a couple of times in my career here, and it felt pretty good to come through for my team,” the fourth-year backstop said. “And it was exciting, but we had another game to play so I couldn’t let myself get too big of a head about it.”
Another tight ballgame was in store for Cumiskey and her team in the finale of their doubleheader, against Hampton. Something of a pitcher’s duel, with eleven strikeouts in the matchup, early runs for both teams left the score knotted at 2-all, where it remained through the end of regulation.
In the 8th inning, Gardner-Webb’s Laken Myers held the Pirates at bay and the Runnin’ Bulldogs had their second chance of the day for a walk-off victory. Scheduled to bat second in the inning?
Cumiskey.
“I was a little worn out,” she said, reflecting. “I was catching my fifth game of the weekend. I don’t think in the moment that my body really felt it, but definitely after the game, I felt very tired. But in the moment, I had a lot of adrenaline going. My freshman pitcher was throwing amazing, and I think I was just really, really excited for her, so I was into the game all through it and I just got a lot of adrenaline off of that.”
Hitless in the game, Cumiskey’s plan was to let the first pitch go by. “I wanted to make the most of the at-bat,” she said. “But she threw me… well, she just threw me a meatball. And I just wanted to hit it. As soon as I hit it, I knew it was out. I was really excited… I hadn’t been hitting with a lot of power lately, so it felt nice to kind-of have that power back. It felt really good.”
In reflecting on the day’s events, Cumiskey credited her experience as a senior and veteran player with being the primary catalysts to channeling her exhilaration from the first game to the second. Head coach Tom Cole agreed.
“It’s incredibly important to have that kind of player,” Cole said. “You’ve got our young players coming in, who have never played college ball before. Even though they’ve been playing softball for most of their lives, college ball is different than playing travel ball. So to have someone like Rachel, who’s been around the block and is confident in herself, that’s very important.
As for the home run that Cumiskey said she immediately knew was out of the park, did Cole have the same thought? “Absolutely. As soon as the ball hit the bat.”
