Coach Gary Frederick thought he had seen everything in his 40 years of coaching baseball / softball. At 70, it seemed sports had run out of surprises for Frederick — that is until his Wildcats hosted Western Oregon one perfect spring afternoon in Ellensburg, Washington.
At the top of the second inning, an incident occurred that spoke to the beauty of caring and serving others. It came in the form of a home run that no one in attendance would forget. “Never in my life had I seen anything like it,” Frederick said. “It was just unbelievable.”
Western’s 5-foot-2-inch right-fielder, Sara Tucholsky, came up with two runners on in the second inning. Sara concentrated on the ball and swung hearing a strike one. And then the college senior did something she had never done before. The career 153 batter smashed the next pitch over the center field fence for an apparent home run. Sara jetted off to first base but as she reached the bag, she looked up to watch the ball clear the fence and missed first base. Six feet past the bag, she abruptly stopped to return and touch it. With an instant jolt, she collapsed to the ground. Laying in the dirt Sara looked to the first base coach who was telling her to crawl back to first base. She said, “I can’t touch you or you will be called out. I can’t help you.”
Sara, in agonizing pain, crawled back to first base and collapsed over the white bag. Western coach Pam Knox rushed onto the field and asked if she could put in a substitute. The umpire replied that Knox could place a substitute runner, but Sara would be credited with a single and the home run would be forfeited. The umpire added that Sara’s teammates cannot assist her around the bases.
That is when Mallory Holtman, the greatest softball player in Central Washington history stepped in. The first baseman volunteered a selfless resolution to her opponents’ dilemma when asking, “Can I carry Sara around the bases?” The umpire was astonished and replied, “There is nothing in the rule book to preclude helping an opponent around the bases.” Mallory asked her teammate, junior shortstop, Liz Wallace to help. Mallory and Liz walked over and picked up Sara and resumed the home-run walk, pausing at each base to allow Sara to touch the base with her uninjured leg.
The three girls began laughing as to what they must look like walking around the bases. They got their answer when they arrived at home plate and looked up. The entire Western Oregon team was in tears, everybody in the stands was in tears, even Coach Fredrick was crying.
The final statement from Mallory was priceless, “In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much, it was about this girl. She hit the ball over the fence and was in pain. She deserved a home run! This is a huge experience I will take away. We are not going to remember if we won or lost, we are going to remember this kind of stuff that shows the character of our team. It is the best group of girls I’ve played with. I came up with the idea but any girl on the team would have done it.”
Click here to watch the ESPN interview of Sara Tucholsky’s heart warming home-run. How did this story of character and sportsmanship impact you? Can you relate? Do you have a story such as this to share? I would love to hear it please comment below.