ATLANTA -- In the third inning of Sunday's Braves-Diamondbacks series finale, First Lt. Ariel Castro offered the biggest surprise of the day's Tribute to the Troops event by asking a question … well, The Question.
With his girlfriend Cherie Byrom sitting to his right and cameras fixated on her expression, Castro, who is stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., got down on one knee and asked for her hand in marriage.
After a laughing spell, she said yes.
Castro had just returned from Afghanistan nine days prior.
The couple has been dating for two years.
A proposal at a sporting event only made sense, too, as Byrom and Castro met at a college football game. Perhaps a wedding in a basketball arena could complete the major-sports love triangle.
The proposal was one of the featured events for the Tribute to the Troops event put on by the Braves and FOX Sports South, which brought in troops from all over to attend the game with proceeds going toward the Wounded Warrior Project. Honored guests included Major General Jim Butterworth, Army staff sergeant Dan Nevins (who now is the director of Warriors Speak as part of the Wounded Warrior Project), Georgia governor Nathan Deal and Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed.
But, along with the pageantry, the honored troops and a moving rendition of the National Anthem, love was in the air at Turner Field on Sunday.
Byrom did, however, offer some final words to the telecast: "Go Braves."
