Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Friday, May 09, 2008
We Say: Shari Rampenthal, Tribune assistant sports editor, on sportsmanship
In a desert of discouraging, disgusting and downright sad sports stories, occasionally an oasis appears.
Revive yourself with this story.
Western Oregon softball player Sara Tucholsky hits her first career home run but she tears the ACL in her right knee while running the bases. She needs help, but if anyone on her team touches her she would be called out. She crawls back to first base, but if her team inserts a pinch runner, her three-run home run would become a two-run single.
So two of her Central Washington opponents, Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace, carry her around the bases.
When they help Tucholsky’s foot hit home plate, she scores what turns out to be the winning run, giving Western Oregon a conference title and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
And Central Washington’s season is over.
And neither Holtman nor Wallace have any regrets.
“It didn’t feel like a decision,” Holtman said when the three players appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” this week. “It just seemed like the right thing. And we didn’t expect people to know about it.”
But even jaded media members know sports fans can use a refreshing blast of sportsmanship every now and then.
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