A lesson in sportsmanship

**Eticket** · 2008-05-01 10:55

This is by far one of the best sports stories I've heard about in a long time. It's long but it's worth it. (cliffs for the tl;dr crowd at the bottom)

ESPN - Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship - College Sports

Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship

By Graham Hays
ESPN.com

Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school's career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement.

Both schools compete as Division II softball programs in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Neither has ever reached the NCAA tournament at the Division II level. But when they arrived for Saturday's conference doubleheader at Central Washington's 300-seat stadium in Ellensburg, a small town 100 miles and a mountain range removed from Seattle, the hosts resided one game behind the visitors at the top of the conference standings. As was the case at dozens of other diamonds across the map, two largely anonymous groups prepared to play the most meaningful games of their seasons.

It was a typical Saturday of softball in April, right down to a few overzealous fans heckling an easy target, the diminutive Tucholsky, when she came to the plate in the top of the second inning of the second game with two runners on base and the game still scoreless after Western Oregon's 8-1 win in the first game of the afternoon.

"I just remember trying to block them out," Tucholsky said of the hecklers. "The first pitch I took, it was a strike. And then I really don't remember where the home run pitch was at all; [I] just remember hitting it, and I knew it was out."

A part-time starter in the outfield throughout her four years, Tucholsky had been caught in a numbers game this season on a deep roster that entered the weekend hitting better than .280 and having won nine games in a row. Prior to the pitch she sent over the center-field fence, she had just three hits in 34 at-bats this season. And in that respect, her hitting heroics would have made for a pleasing, if familiar, story line on their own: an unsung player steps up in one of her final games and lifts her team's postseason chances.

But it was what happened after an overly excited Tucholsky missed first base on her home run trot and reversed direction to tag the bag that proved unforgettable.

"Sara is small -- she's like 5-2, really tiny," Western Oregon coach Pam Knox said. "So you would never think that she would hit a home run. The score was 0-0, and Sara hit a shot over center field. And I'm coaching third and I'm high-fiving the other two runners that came by -- then all of a sudden, I look up, and I'm like, 'Where's Sara?' And I look over, and she's in a heap beyond first base."

While she was doubling back to tag first base, Tucholsky's right knee gave out. The two runners who had been on base already had crossed home plate, leaving her the only offensive player on the field of play, even as she lay crumpled in the dirt a few feet from first base and a long way from home plate. First-base coach Shannon Prochaska -- Tucholsky's teammate for three seasons and the only voice she later remembered hearing in the ensuing conversation -- checked to see whether she could crawl back to the base under her own power.

As Knox explained, "It went through my mind, I thought, 'If I touch her, she's going to kill me.' It's her only home run in four years. I didn't want to take that from her, but at the same time, I was worried about her."

Umpires confirmed that the only option available under the rules was to replace Tucholsky at first base with a pinch runner and have the hit recorded as a two-run single instead of a three-run home run. Any assistance from coaches or trainers while she was an active runner would result in an out. So without any choice, Knox prepared to make the substitution, taking both the run and the memory from Tucholsky.

"And right then," Knox said, "I heard, 'Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?'"

The voice belonged to Holtman, a four-year starter who owns just about every major offensive record there is to claim in Central Washington's record book. She also is staring down a pair of knee surgeries as soon as the season ends. Her knees ache after every game, but having already used a redshirt season earlier in her career, and ready to move on to graduate school and coaching at Central, she put the operations on hold so as to avoid missing any of her final season. Now, with her own opportunity for a first postseason appearance very much hinging on the outcome of the game -- her final game at home -- she stepped up to help a player she knew only as an opponent for four years.

"Honestly, it's one of those things that I hope anyone would do it for me," Holtman said. "She hit the ball over her fence. She's a senior; it's her last year. … I don't know, it's just one of those things I guess that maybe because compared to everyone on the field at the time, I had been playing longer and knew we could touch her, it was my idea first. But I think anyone who knew that we could touch her would have offered to do it, just because it's the right thing to do. She was obviously in agony."

Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, stopping at each one so Tucholsky's left foot could secure her passage onward. Even with Tucholsky feeling the pain of what trainers subsequently came to believe was a torn ACL (she was scheduled for tests to confirm the injury on Monday), the surreal quality of perhaps the longest and most crowded home run trot in the game's history hit all three players.

"We all started to laugh at one point, I think when we touched the first base," Holtman said. "I don't know what it looked like to observers, but it was kind of funny because Liz and I were carrying her on both sides and we'd get to a base and gently, barely tap her left foot, and we'd all of a sudden start to get the giggles a little bit."

Accompanied by a standing ovation from the fans, they finally reached home plate and passed the home run hitter into the arms of her own teammates.

Then Holtman and Wallace returned to their positions and tried to win the game.

Hollywood would have a difficult time deciding how such a script should end, whether to leave Tucholsky's home run as the decisive blow or reward the selfless actions of her opponents. Reality has less room for such philosophical quandaries. Central Washington did rally for two runs in the bottom of the second -- runs that might have tied the game had Knox been forced to replace Tucholsky -- but Western Oregon held on for a 4-2 win.

But unlike a movie, the credits didn't roll after the final out, and the story that continues has little to do with those final scores.

"It kept everything in perspective and the fact that we're never bigger than the game," Knox said of the experience. "It was such a lesson that we learned -- that it's not all about winning. And we forget that, because as coaches, we're always trying to get to the top. We forget that. But I will never, ever forget this moment. It's changed me, and I'm sure it's changed my players."

For her part, Holtman seems not altogether sure what all the fuss is about. She seems to genuinely believe that any player in her position on any field on any day would have done the same thing. Which helps explains why it did happen on that day and on that field.

And she appreciates the knowledge that while the results of Saturday's game and her senior season soon will fade into the dust and depth of old media guides and Internet archives, the story of what happened in her final game at home will live on far longer.

"I think that happening on Senior Day, it showed the character of our team," Holtman said. "Because granted I thought of it, but everyone else would have done it. It's something people will talk about for Senior Day. They won't talk about who got hits and what happened and who won; they'll talk about that. And it's kind of a nice way to go out, because it shows what our program is about and the kind of people we have here."

Graham Hays is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. E-mail him at [email:2g8ois4l][email protected][/email:2g8ois4l].

Cliffs:
College senior hits her first career home run.
She blows out her ACL when she misses first base and goes back to tag it.
If she was unable to cross home, the hit would count as a single.
Due to NCAA rules no member of her team or coaching staff could help her.
The opposing team offered to carry her around the basepath so that her home run would count and proceeded to do so, stopping at each base so she could touch it along the way.

**Teffy** · 2008-05-01 11:07

if she really wanted it she could have crawled.

**Quixon** · 2008-05-01 11:08

Yeah I saw this on Sports Center this morning. Pretty classy thing to do.

**Mizango** · 2008-05-01 11:11

They've been showing this on Sportscenter since Tuesday, its "aight" I guess. This happens a lot believe it or not. Uconn scoring leader Nakisha Sails or something like that was 2 points shy of breaking the NCAA women's record for points when she was hoisted by team mates and walked to the basket to score the 2 points needed to break the record.

All instances of this are cheesy and weak. Its a feel good story sure, but I personally would have went to the dug out to replenish my sunflower seed rations. When I play sports I am cutthroat to say the least. Maybe I'm just a fucking asshole.

**Quixon** · 2008-05-01 11:19

I think an awesome example of this type of thing.....not sportsmanship so to speak, but teammates supporting each other:

Is Byron Leftwich after breaking his shin against Akron in 02, getting carried down the field by his offensive lineman and bringing Marshall back to win from like 17 points down.

http://media.collegepublisher.com/me...s/50y00kz6.jpg

**Eticket** · 2008-05-01 11:27

Originally Posted by Mizango

They've been showing this on Sportscenter since Tuesday, its "aight" I guess. This happens a lot believe it or not. Uconn scoring leader Nakisha Sails or something like that was 2 points shy of breaking the NCAA women's record for points when she was hoisted by team mates and walked to the basket to score the 2 points needed to break the record.

Actually the Nykesha Sales thing was a bit different. She blew out her knee at the end of a game. At the beginning of the next game, the opposing team agreed to let her make an unopposed shot as long as they could do the same. When the game actually 'started' it was 2-2. lol I remember that one actually getting some negative feedback due to the fact it was 'manufactured' or whatever.

This was more of a spur of the moment sacrifice by the opposing team.

I agree there's been a lot of schmaltzy stuff like this over the last few years but I'll take a story like this over the steriods crap and a story about some player driving drunk, killing someone or beating his wife.

**Dmitry** · 2008-05-01 11:37

If I'd have gotten more field time my senior year in lacrosse I wouldn't have been so bitter, but one of the games that I got put in with a decent amount of time left (I think around 8:00 when I got subbed in), our defense hit this one kid so hard that an ambulance had to be called. Other coaches have actually complained about our defense because so many kids got hurt lol, but the only thing that came to my mind when it happened was "He's faking it so they don't lose by as much". haha

**Norelco** · 2008-05-01 13:01

Originally Posted by Teffy

if she really wanted it she could have crawled.

Have you ever suffered a knee injury where you tore a ligament? The pain and swelling alone wouldn't permit this. I guess she could have rolled from base to base.

**Norelco** · 2008-05-01 13:03

lol, you know, when they quoted the losing coach as saying "Unbelievable", I can't help but think he thought it was unbelievable of them to give up their dream of a championship, and not so much the sportsmanship.

**Deejay** · 2008-05-01 13:11