I much prefer college baseball to the professional version. I think the atmosphere is much better, in great part due to the emotion shown by the players. They show so much effort, not for a paycheck, but simply in their desire to help their teams on behalf of their school.

It’s a great game.

And don’t leave the women out, as women’s softball is a competitive sport, with lots of hustle and great emotion as well.

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A recent women’s softball game also featured one of the greatest displays of good sportsmanship ever shown on any field, any time, anywhere.

A friend forwarded me the story, as reported as www.poynter.org (http://www.poynter.org).

The women of Central Washington University’s softball team earlier this month literally carried a player from the opposing team around the bases so that player could complete the first homerun she’d ever hit.

According the report I saw, there were two runners on base when Western Oregon University’s Sara Tucholsky stepped up to bat. She hit the ball over the centerfield fence.

No doubt caused at least in part by her excitement over getting her first homerun, as a senior, Sara missed first base so had to turn to go back to tag it.

And she did, she collapsed, suffering some sort of knee injury. She was lying on the ground, short of the base, in tremendous pain.

Her coaches couldn’t come to her aid, as because she wasn’t on a base, the play was still live.

She managed to crawl in the dirt back to first base.

If her coach put in a substitute runner, the batter would get credit not for a homerun but for a single with two runs batted in.

It was her only homerun in four years of playing, so they didn’t want to see if have to give it up. But the umpires said a player could not have assistance from teammates going around the bases.

That’s when Mallory Holtman, the first baseman of Central Washington (the all-time homerun leader in the conference) stepped forward and asked the umpire if there was any rule against the opposing team assisting the runner around the bases.

The umpire could think of no rule against that. Obviously you wouldn’t think that would come up.

So the first baseman and the shortstop for Central Washington carried the injured opponent to second, dipping down so she could touch the base, then to third and then to home, so she’d get credit for her homerun.

“It was the right thing to do. She’d hit it over the fence. She deserved the homerun,” the first baseman later said.

What a classy thing for the girls from Central Washington University’s team to do for their opponent, and what a terrific display of good sportsmanship.

This story ought to be required reading for members of local youth leagues, and for sure for lots of the “it’s all about me” guys in the big leagues could learn from the example set by these girls.

What a great story.

WILL CHAPMAN is publisher of The Daily Iberian.