All-state shortstop Tamia Cherry wasn’t too concerned when she injured her elbow while trying to steal second base in Aubrey’s final scrimmage before the start of her senior year.
“Me and my parents thought it was just a tear and that I would be back within like two weeks,” Cherry said.
She played the rest of that scrimmage and then the season opener against Fort Worth Boswell on Feb. 11, but her pain was nearly off the charts.
“I was in a lot of pain,” Cherry said. “I was like a 10 [on a scale of one to 10]. I couldn’t throw, I couldn’t really hit. So we went to the doctor and got an MRI.”
That revealed devastating news. Cherry not only had a Grade 2 tear of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in her elbow, but the Texas Woman’s University signee also had an avulsion fracture.
It could have been a season-ending injury. Tommy John surgery is often used to repair torn UCLs inside the elbow.
“We did think it was going to be season-ending,” Cherry said. “If I had gotten surgery, I would have been out for a year and I would have missed my freshman year at TWU.”
Luckily for Cherry, doctors thought the fracture could heal on its own, so she avoided surgery and was only out for about two months. She returned April 11 for Aubrey’s third-to-last district game, and she is a big reason why Aubrey (33-3) will have a chance to win the first softball state title in school history Friday when it plays Robinson (36-3) at 10 a.m. in the Class 4A Division II championship game at the University of Texas’ Red & Charline McCombs Field in Austin.
“It is amazing. It doesn’t feel real,” she said.
Cherry is hitting .444 with 12 runs and six RBIs in nine playoff games, and Aubrey will take an 11-game winning streak into its first softball state championship game since 2007. Cherry was 8 for 13 with four extra-base hits and seven runs in back-to-back two-game sweeps of Carthage and Canton in the regional semifinals and regional final.
“She was very aggressive on therapy and rehab, and now she is back and it seems like she is getting stronger each week,” Aubrey coach James Ramsey said. “I was concerned [that it could have been season ending], because I knew that was a pretty serious injury, but she was determined to get back.”
Normal third baseman Carmen Alexander moved to shortstop while Cherry was out, and the senior is hitting .312 with seven home runs and 53 runs going into the state final. Junior outfielder Sophia Mulhern moved to third base to take Alexander’s spot and Aubrey didn’t miss a beat, winning more games this year than its state runner-up teams did in 2004 and 2007 in the school’s previous state final appearances.
Cherry said she couldn’t throw 60 feet yet when she first returned to the lineup, so Aubrey moved her to second base for a few games before she went back to playing shortstop in the second round of the playoffs.
“She hasn’t complained of any issues,” Ramsey said. “At shortstop, she is solid and makes plays that you know other kids might not be able to make. She has come through with some big hits for us in the playoffs.”
Cherry has suffered two significant injuries in her career while trying to steal second base, with the first resulting in finger surgery that sidelined her for two weeks the summer before her junior year. Like this year, she came back strong and hit .504 with 12 home runs and 60 RBIs as a junior as Aubrey reached a regional final.
When it comes to college, Cherry will play alongside her sister, Mya Cherry, at Texas Woman’s University. Mya is Aubrey’s star pitcher and is 25-1 with a 0.87 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 145 innings while hitting .384 with seven home runs and 36 RBIs.
“We really wanted to go together. That was always the plan from Day 1,” Tamia said.
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