The following story is published with permission of Dick Warn.

With two runners on base, Sara Tucholsky (playing for Western Oregon University) hit her first home run ever. However, she passed first base without even touching it. When she realized her error she stopped, turned, and her knee gave out. Painfully she crawled back to first base.

If any coach, trainer or fellow team member were to touch her while she lay there she would be called out. When the umpire arrived, he said a pinch runner could be called in, but her homer would count as only a single, with two runs batted in.

Hearing what the umpire said, Central Washington’s first baseman asked, “Would it be okay if we (as she pointed to a team member) carried her and she touched each of the bags?”

Nothing in the rule book said that opposing players couldn’t. So, two of Central Washington’s players lifted Sara and carried her to second, third and home, allowing her to touch each base.

As they reached home plate, the odd looking trio was laughing, everyone in the stands was on their feet clapping, and the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.

Sara’s home run helped end Central Washington’s trip to their conference finals and their season was over.

Thinking back on what they had done, Liz Wallace, Central’s shortstop, said, “We didn’t know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run.”

And, Mallory Holtman, record-setting first baseman in her final year with Central’s team, said, “In the end, it is not about winning or losing. It is about this girl. She hit it over the fence and she was lying there in extreme pain. She deserved that home run.”