Eliahana Cruz Torres loved being a softball player. The 10-year-old would practice high-speed underhand throws with her grandfather for hours in a makeshift bullpen he made from store-bought netting in their front yard. Their training sessions were intense, with throwing practice stretching into the evening.
Cabrales told NBC News on Sunday that Torres would come looking for reassurance from her family every night before her games that her match would go well as this was her first season in Little League.
According to Cabrales, it was Torres' first time this year to get into a sport, and she had come to love it. Cabrales said that every time Torres would go practice, she was always eager because she was the type of kid that wanted to do her best. Cabrales added that her niece loved everything about the game; it did not matter to her whether she was pitching, catching, or in the outfield.
Darkest day in Little League history
Eliahana got to pitch in one softball game, and she was just hours away from taking the circle a second time when tragedy struck, according to KIII TV. Torres, 18 other students, and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by a mad gunman on Tuesday, May 24.
Officials said on Friday, May 27, that at least six and as many as 11 victims were Little League baseball or softball players, making the Texas shooting the darkest day in league history. President and CEO Stephen Keener said that the grim discovery was made by matching victims' names to Little League's database of players registered to play in and around Uvalde.
The names of the victims corresponded with 11 in the national registry. Five signed up from 2019 to 2021, and six victims registered to play this year. According to Keener, six of them would have been playing this season, while the five others could still be active because they did not need to register nationally again unless they had moved.
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Uvalde shooting is just horrific
Keener and board Chairman Hugh E. Tanner said they do not believe there has ever been another time when many of their young Little League players were killed in one day. Keener did not mince any words when talking about the shooting, saying, "Hard to recall anything darker. There really are no words to describe and express how we feel. It's just horrific."
Tanner, a Houston lawyer, said that he regularly takes note of tragedies that befall alumni of the Little League and that he could not remember when multiple current players died in such a single, terrible act.
Tanner said as profiles of the players emerged, he was moved by the number of families that issued pictures of their fallen loved ones in softball or baseball uniforms, such as Eliahana.
