Over the past three years, SF State's softball team has been through many changes. But if you take one look at the lineup for every game in the last three years you will see that something has stayed the same. Rachel Darrow has been in a consecutive game stretch for the Gators that would make Cal Ripken and Lou Gehrig proud.

As far as Gator lineups go, senior catcher Darrow has been as automatic as tying your shoes in the morning. In her freshmen and sophomore years, Darrow caught every game. She played in every game last year, sometimes as the catcher and sometimes as the designated hitter. And she’s played for a reason -- she’s good.

“I don’t think of it as a streak or anything, I just love to play,” Darrow said. “I love coming to the field and no matter what is going on with my life outside the field I can just leave it all out there on the field and forget about it.”

Darrow led the team with 37 runs batted in last year while hitting .297. This year, she is currently batting .286 with 3 homeruns and 7 runs batted in, all while being the catcher, the position on the field most likely to cause harm.

“I decided to be a catcher at an early age, basically, because on my team they didn’t have anyone that wanted to play catcher,” Darrow said. “ After a while I loved it.”

Another person that loves having Darrow behind the plate is her pitchers, particularly sophomore Sonja Garnett.

“A pitcher is nothing without a good catcher,” Garnett said. “In the last couple of weeks she has shown me that we are on exactly the same page when it comes to my pitching. When she calls a pitch it is always the exact same pitch that I want to throw, and that I think is best. Her presence on the field, and her knowledge of the game, help make this team better.”

After growing up in the small town of Corning, Calif., Darrow wanted to see more of the world and decided to leave her hometown for the big city of San Francisco. Darrow’s first year at SF State was a weird one. Darrow would soon find out after arriving that she would be playing for a different coach than the one that recruited her.

“Coach Moss recruited me and then all of a sudden she’s gone and the team doesn’t have a coach,” Darrow said. “It was kind of scary not knowing what Coach Lansford’s expectations were of me in the beginning[,] but I liked her right from the start.”

Head Coach Kristi Lansford liked Darrow from the start as well, as Darrow was the everyday leadoff hitter and catcher for her first two seasons. After experimenting with Darrow in the cleanup spot for most of her junior year, Lansford put Darrow back into the leadoff spot this year.

“She has a great leadoff history, and to tell you the truth, I just like starting things off with her right off the bat,” Lansford said.

Darrow doesn’t mind the change at all. And while Darrow is a big tough girl, she can also run well.

“I don’t mind batting leadoff. I just want to bat in one of the top three spots so I can hit in the first inning. I think people look at me a lot of times and just see a catcher and think that I can’t run as well. I think this enables me to steal a more bases,” Darrow said.

Instead of running, Darrow sometimes likes to go for a nice trot. She hit six homeruns last year, and explains that when hitting a homerun, “everything just feels right.”

“One of my favorite SF State softball moments came when I hit a homerun my freshmen year against Chico State,” Darrow said. “They were one of the schools I was thinking about going to, but in the end they turned me down because they thought I would never play. So when I hit the homerun against them I was smiling while running around the bases. It felt like I was getting back at the people that said I would never play. I had a lot of friends that were playing for Chico State and they knew what was going on in my mind as well.”

While not on the field, Darrow’s schedule is filled. She is majoring in liberal studies, with a minor in health. Darrow says she is not sure if she will do anything after college with her major, but is interested in community involvement work and H.I.V. awareness. She wants to be a firefighter.

“I’m definitely not the type of person that wants an office job,” Darrow said. “I’m the type of person that always has to be up and doing something. I think that’s how I handle my schedule so well.”

Until then Darrow is just going to enjoy her last year at SF State, which she thinks will be the team’s best.

“This team has so much great chemistry,” Darrow said. I enjoy myself around this team so much. I love playing with them and hanging around with them as friends. I know they got my back.”

Lansford says she will miss Darrow, her first four-year senior, a great deal when she leaves after this year.

“She’s just a bulldog,” said Lansford. “ She’s tough and she plays with a lot of heart. As a hitter she has always been a threat for us. I’m so glad we have a good team this year because Rachel has been through so many ups and downs in this program it makes me want to have a good year, if anything, just for her. She is someone that is very special on and off the field to this team.”