A Missouri woman was thrown a curveball when she tossed the first pitch at a minor league baseball game in her hometown.
Darla Harlow thought she was lobbing the ball to the team's catcher, but the person hiding behind the mask was her husband Michael, a U.S. Army major who had just returned home after a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Michael didn't tell his wife or her two daughters that he was back on U.S. soil. Instead, he chose to surprise them with the elaborate ruse at Trustman Park, home of the AA Braves in Jackson, Mo.
Darla was "randomly" selected from the crowd to throw out the first pitch. As she walked towards the catcher after throwing a one-hopper over home plate, Darla got a glimpse of her husband's face behind the mask and immediately put her hands over her mouth in absolute shock.
The pair then embraced for the first time in nine months as the crowd roared.
"I wanted to make sure she remembered what I look like," Michael told KSDK, an NBC affiliate in St. Louis.
"It took a couple of seconds, just shocked," Darla told the television station.
Michael just completed a mission in Afghanistan with the Mississippi Army National Guard's 184th Joint Sustainment Command, but he'll only be home for 10 weeks before returning overseas for another deployment, according to the report.
He and his two daughters had been working on the surprise for more than two weeks, KDSK reported.
