In my other newspaper job, sports editor for the Longview News-Journal, I’m blessed to cover and report on the athletic accomplishments of hard-working East Texas kids.

Tuesday was one of those nights, and by the time the evening finished, I had written game reports for more than 40 area high school baseball and softball games.

It was a particularly good night for softball pitchers in the area. Looking at the roundup of action in the Wednesday newspaper, I counted three perfect games.

But, with all due respect to those young ladies who were mowing down hitters Tuesday, none of them delivered the best pitch of the night.

That honor went to a special education teacher from Hallsville who threw a strike to a social studies teacher and assistant softball coach at New Diana — who just happened to be her daughter.

I’ve seen those two play catch before, and I’ll be perfectly honest here. When I witnessed the mom, Sheri Hawthorne, toss a softball to the daughter, Emma, back in 2014, my heart ached because I figured I was witnessing something that would never happen again.

Sheri was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer in 2014, and during that softball season, Hallsville High School decided to hold its first “Strike Out Cancer Night.” Sheri was invited to throw out the first pitch in that game, and it would be delivered to Emma, a catcher on the Ladycats’ team.

I was there to cover the game. I was in awe of Sheri’s courage, but I am 2-for-2 when it comes to cancer taking away parents — my dad at 61 and my mom at 59 — and it hurt thinking that a high school kid like Emma might soon be without her mother.

Sheri had other ideas, and if she isn’t the toughest lady in East Texas, the line in front of her is a short one.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Sheri said Wednesday when I told her I was concerned she would be gone soon after watching her on that night back in 2014. “I wasn’t sure I would live to see the next year and see Emma and all of those great girls keep doing what they loved.”

Doctors didn’t give Sheri a death sentence with her initial diagnosis, but the hope meter was on low.

“They just said we were going to do 12 rounds of chemo and see what happens,” she said. “I talked about it with the kids, and told them we were all just going to keep pushing through. I knew things were going to get tough, but we were going to keep pushing through.”

And she fought.

Her body didn’t tolerate the first two rounds of chemo, and Sheri ended up in the hospital with pneumonia after each dose. For the remaining 10 doses, she did chemo treatments one day and shots to boost her immune system the next day.

“I never thought about her passing away, but just seeing her so sick and hurting …” Emma said Wednesday as her voice cracked a little.

“She was there for us every day, though. Looking back, I can’t imagine her being so sick and still doing all of the things she did for us. It’s inspiring to remember how strong she was.”

When the chemo was done and doctors tested Sheri again, the cancer was gone.

“It was amazing,” she said. “They did a CAT scan, looked at everything, drew blood … and the doctor just said ‘It’s all gone. You are on the positive side of this cancer.’ “

She continued to take medicine for eight years, and during that time she’s seen her daughter play college softball — throwing out the first pitch at one of her games at Northwestern State University in 2017 — and watched Emma graduate from college, become a teacher and coach and begin planning for a January wedding.

And she’s still throwing fastballs, like the one she delivered to Emma on Tuesday before New Diana’s 4-2 win over Sabine.

Heck. Sheri Hawthorne didn’t just strike out cancer.

She stared down one of life’s scariest pitches and knocked it out of the park.