March 2, 2017
By Anna Pitingolo, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Jessica Cummings has been surrounded by softball her entire life. She is the middle child in a house of all girls, all of who played the sport growing up. Now in her junior year at Penn State, she's primed to have a breakout season under head coach Amanda Lehotak.
"I think that's part of the reason why I love [the sport] so much. I always wanted to be just like my older sister [Danielle] and she was a pitcher so that's why I would say I pitch," Cummings said. "And my younger sister [Micaela] is a catcher and she's my best friend in the entire world and I think part of that has to do with softball. I'd throw to her every day, that's how we would spend time together so my sisters are my two best friends and it's because of softball."
Danielle and Micaela are also Division I softball players, with Danielle having played at Mount Saint Mary's from 2011-2015 and Micaela currently playing in her freshman season at Delaware State.
Following in Danielle's footsteps as a pitcher has taught Cummings a lot. Both of them have battled through injury in their college career, and Cummings has learned about pushing through adversity. Even when not being able to contribute on the mound, Cummings made sure that she can be the best teammate possible, another thing she learned from her big sister.
"She had a tough road too with some injuries so [I learned about] perseverance," Cummings said. "She was always a good teammate and had everyone's back and everyone wanted to be on a team with her whether she was their star pitcher or not and I think that has really inspired me to be the teammate that I've had to be through injury and everything like that."
Cummings had a career outing against Cleveland State in last weekend's Chanticleer Showdown. She had a career-high nine strikeouts in a 9-0 win over the Vikings. Lehotak was thrilled to finally see Cumming reach her potential on the mound.
"It was great to see her. She battled with injuries all of last year, so to see her healthy on the mound, ready to go, was exactly what we needed," Lehotak said. "Jess had a great game and really that's just her building on what she's done her freshman and sophomore years. It's just been so hit and miss because of her injury so I know she needed that."
Cummings currently has a 1.91 ERA in three appearances this season, including two starts. With the strong pitching staff that Penn State boasts this year, Cummings knows that it's always a competition to get to the mound.
"Obviously we all want to throw and everyone's working their butt off to throw but we're making each other better and just really having a blast together," Cummings said. "I don't think there's a lot of schools in the country that have that, where you can have good pitchers who still want the best for each other and I think that we definitely do right now and that's what is making us successful."
The Nittany Lions will travel across the country for the next week as they head to Colorado for the Colorado State Classic this weekend before facing Seattle at home in Washington.