Champions aren’t always determined by the score of the game. It was on the softball field in the 2008 Greater Northwest Athletic Women’s Collegiate Conference with rivals Western Oregon and Central Washington that this astonishing story unfolded.
The hosts were one game behind the visitors at the top of the conference standings. Both teams were prepared to play the most meaningful games of their seasons.
In her last game as a senior, Sara Tucholsky, who had never hit a home run in her career, was up to bat for Western Oregon. With two runners on base, this would create the much needed 3 points for their team. The first pitch was a strike but the second was a home run pitch over centerfield. Overly excited, Sara missed first base on her home run trot and reversed direction to return to tag the bag. And that is when the unthinkable happened. While she was doubling back to tag first base, Sara’s right knee buckled, and her ACL ripped. In agony she crawled back to first base and lay in a heap.
Stunned, the coach consulted the umpires who confirmed she would have to run on her own.
Once all options were considered, and none of them good, the coach prepared to make the substitution, taking both the run and the memory from Sara.
It was then the first baseman from the opposing Central Washington team, Mallory Holtman, asked the umpires if it would be okay if she helped Sara to get to home plate. It was determined that would be legal. This wasn’t just some regular game. This was the championship game at the end of the season. Much was hinging on winning the game for Mallory’s future but without hesitation she stepped up to help a player she knew only as an opponent for four years.
Mallory and Central Washington shortstop, Liz Wallace, lifted Sara off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, pausing at each one so Sara could tap her left foot on each base.
Even with Sara in excruciating pain, the surreal quality of perhaps the longest and most crowded home run trot in the game’s history hit all three players. Sporadic giggles from these women were met with a standing ovation from the fans as they finally reached home plate and passed the home run hitter into the welcoming arms of her own teammates. Mallory and Liz then returned to their positions and tried to win the game, but Western Oregon held on for a 4-2 win.
This game has little to do with those final scores. Mallory genuinely believed that any player in her position on any field on any day would have done the same thing. Which helps explain why it did happen on that day and on that field.
Sara’s injury really wasn’t the other team’s problem. In fact, it was beneficial to the opposing team. Yet, two girls with hearts of gold chose to rise above what would have been totally acceptable that day and rejoice in someone else’s bad luck.
Mallory and Liz’s team lost that day, in part because of what they had done for the opposing team, directly helping them to score.
But they didn’t really lose. Their incredible act of kindness and remarkable character will be remembered much longer than the final score or any other individual statistics.
That day in central Washington the collective human spirit was celebrated far more than any athletic achievement. Champions aren’t always on the winning team.
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