OKTAHA, Okla. — Holli Carnes, a senior softball player at Sequoyah, was laid to rest Wednesday after authorities say she died in a head-on collision last week.
"She was like the perfect teammate, you know, even when she was having a bad day or a bad at-bat,you would never know because she was always supporting her teammates, cheering us on, hyping usup," Hadley Branan, an Aces teammate, said.
Branan said the emotion of playing without Holli was overwhelming during the tribute game.
"I had an at-bat and didn't do well and just broke down. Not because the at-bat was bad, but because I miss my friend, you know. It was just hard," Branan said.
Kia Holmes coaches the Oktaha Aces, where Holli played her last two summers. Holmes says Holli'simpact will last forever.
"Our last tournament actually, there was an umpire that was talking about Holly and he would say, 'Man, that number 12 she brought me a bottle of water and she is watching me and if I'm not drinking it she is getting on to me. Like he was joking about it. He said I've been umping a long time and I never had a player do that and that was her," Holmes said.
Kadence Strube has known Holli since they were little. Strube says Holli had a cannon arm and was the kind of teammate you loved playing with but hated playing against.
"Anytime my dad griped at me for popping up or whatever, Holly would say 'It's OK, who cares? Go onto the next pitch.' So now we wrote 'who cares' on our shoes as another way to remember Holli,"Strube said.
Holmes says the best way to honor Holli is to be the kind of teammate and person she was.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with theassistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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