In the top of the 2nd inning, Western Oregon had runners on first and second and a seldom used senior named Sara Tucholsky came to bat. Now Sara had never hit a homerun before, but this time she really connected and the ball sailed over the fence. Her teammates were ecstatic until they realized that Sara had fallen down after touching first base. She had planted wrong and had blown out her knee, and was now beyond first base lying on the ground, writhing in pain.
The other two runners crossed home plate, but the rules were interpreted by the umpires that Sara had to touch all the bases for it to be ruled a homerun. If a member of her own team touched her the homerun would be nullified. Sara would have to get to all the bases without the help of her teammates. The only problem was she could not move. Her coach was going to have to substitute for her and her hit would be ruled a two-run single. Just before he spoke to the umpire, another voice spoke up and said, “Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?” That voice came from Mallory Holtman, the career home run leader from Western Washington, the opposing team.
Mallory and fellow teammate Liz Wallace picked up Sara and carried her to every base, gently touching her foot to the bag. They carried her home, and helped her achieve her first homerun. People that watched the situation cheered and cried because they knew it was even bigger than they had witnessed.
You see, Mallory was a senior too and this was her last chance to make the playoffs in her career. When she helped Sara get home, she did so in spite of the fact that her team would be down by three runs. Mallory and her teammates played the rest of the game to win, but they came up one run short, losing 4-3. Because of their kindness and outstanding character, their team did not advance to the playoffs.
After the game Mallory said, “"I think that happening on Senior Day, it showed the character of our team. … 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." [1]
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