typing cmds 2x for cygwin shell

[Kev]

I use the cygwin shell from within Vim by using the following in my _vimrc
: set shell=c:\cygwin\cygwin.bat
If I use :r!date to insert the current date, the shell will open and I 
have to type the command "date" again. Then after typing "exit" the 
shell exits and the date is placed in the buffer. Any suggestions on how 
to avoid typing the command a second time?
Thanks, Kevin