When a utility player ends a weekend of playing softball, they never know what position they’ll end up playing next. Sure, they aren’t like specialized position players, who do one thing well in one position, and constantly play in one spot. They have to be able to adapt and change to a completely new position from game to game, sometimes switching positions and tactics around mid-game. 

Quinnipiac softball senior Rachel Marchuk played in various positions on the field. From third base and second base, where she played most of her career, to even filling in behind the plate, Marchuk learned how to adapt to benefit her team the most. Whether it was on or off the field, the senior knew how step up and lead her team.

Marchuk also looked like she was going to be one of the pivotal players for the Bobcats in the upcoming season. Through her first 11 games, the senior led the team in homeruns (2) and RBIs (7), as well as the third-highest on-base percentage (.321) on the team. 

Then came COVID-19.

The Bobcats were supposed to head to a Major League Baseball spring training game, which was cancelled. The players and coaching staff instead had a typical off day that turned into the end of their season.

“None of us knew to the extent of what was going to happen, but we knew that coach (Hillary Smith) was in and out of calls all day,” Marchuk said. “So, then we’re all hanging out in the lobby playing card games and our coach calls us into her hotel room. She goes ‘I have something to share with all of you.’ That’s when we got the news.”

Even though the NCAA would later extend every spring sport athlete’s eligibility by one more playing year, Marchuk knew what her decision would be months before. She just never thought the end would spring up on her so quickly. 

“For me personally, it’s sunk in the moment our coach said that the season was over,” Marchuk said. “I realized I will never play again with these girls. No one knew what NCAA eligibility was going to look like, but I knew that I had a job lined up since October. So, I knew that when this season was over, I was going to be done.”

The three-time MAAC All-Academic team selection was finished with her collegiate softball career. While she never was one to headline the stats section, Marchuk was an asset to the Bobcats’ locker room. She had to truly step in and be a veteran presence in a locker room with 15 total underclassmen. Leaving that young team is what hurts her the most when she is moving onto the working world. 

“There’s nothing else in this world that’s like winning with the team. You will you’ll always work like on a team, whether it’s in a work environment on a team or with another person on something, but there’s nothing like winning a team in a sport that you love.”

The team gave back to their versatile player. Coming from California, Marchuk said it was tough to get back home, but she was taken in by junior Brighid Douglas and her family. She said that Douglas’ family would take the two players to dinner and she would sometimes celebrate holidays with them.

Marchuk, like all of the spring sport seniors who are not returning to Quinnipiac and their respective universities, did not receive a senior day. Instead, Marchuk said she has a different send-off. It was down in Florida, against Central Michigan. Marchuk hit a three-run homerun to put the Bobcats up 8-0 over the Chippewas.

It was the final hit of her career. 

Marchuk left the team with a message that she constantly preached, and made the most sense with the season ending early   

“I told this to them ever since last year, is to appreciate every second you have with each other on and off the field,” Marchuk said. “It’s not just because we’re a female sport that doesn’t have a big professional league, but it’s because you never know how much time left you have to play on the field and with each other.”