Smoking Aces: Pitcher Summer Collins takes the hill for Lady Golden Eagles

MULLINS -- When Summer Collins took the field for the first time as a seventh grader with the Pee Dee Academy softball team, she could describe her emotions with one word … “Intimidated.”

“Those girls were throwing so well and so hard,” Collins recalled. “ I didn’t know if I would ever be able to throw like them.”

Now, five years and five region titles later, it is Collins who is doing the intimidating as she gives batters the icy glare from the mound.

"In seventh grade, Summer probably was a little scared, but she never showed it," former coach Wes Daniels said of his pitcher. "Now she can laugh at herself, and she knows how to improve herself."
Daniels continued to talk of Collins' improvement over her years of playing at Pee Dee. "She has tremendous arm strength, very quick hands and has one of the hardest over-handed throws I have ever seen."

The past three seasons, with Collins splitting time between the pitcher’s mound and third base, the Golden Eagles have finished no lower than third in the state. In 2008, Collins and another pitching standout, Christen Bucy, took Pee Dee to a state runner-up finish in Lexington.

“That’s a place I want to get back to,” Collins said as she reflected on her memories of the annual 16-team tournament. “Some of my greatest moments have been right there on the biggest stage. It is definitely the most fun I have had playing softball.”

Daniels, who was in his last year of head coaching the softball team in 2008, looks back at that tournament as one of Collins' finest moments of her high school career.

"You can tell she really wants to win and that night, the competitive edge came out," he said. "She really responded when her team needed her, she stepped up in a tough situation and you could really see her potential coming to the surface."

It was there that she caught the eye of Coker softball coach, David Hannah.

Bucy signed to play softball with Columbia College last year and this past November, Collins joined her on the next level by signing to play with Coker College.

“It is an honor and a privilege,” Collins said of the college signing. “I want to make sure that I prove myself worthy of the scholarship in my senior year. I am thankful to Coach Hannah for this opportunity to pitch in college."

Collins also wanted to give thanks to the people who helped get her to this point. "First of all, I want to thank God. He is my number one inspiration," she said. "I also want to thank my parents. They are one of the main reasons I chose to further my softball career. They have supported me all the way through and have not missed a single game I have played in."

She also wanted to thank Coach Daniels and her dad for pushing her so hard. "Wes would push me until I just could not be pushed anymore. And, my dad would catch for me out in the yard until he was physically unable."

For five years, Summer Collins has pushed herself to the limit too. Now that she has almost reached the limit to her high school years, she is set to carry her team for one more run.

"We have seen her grow and mature so much in her love for the game", Daniels said. "And, it has been so fun watching her and her excitement of furthering her career into college."

Pee Dee Academy sports fans look forward to hearing the stories of that college career and of that icy glare intimidating the batters on the next level.