Nine years ago, Kelly Arthur convinced her friend, Grace Pargin, to try playing softball.
“Kelly is the reason I started playing,” Pargin said. “I just wanted to hang out with Kelly and I fell in love with softball.”
On Friday, the two Ignacio Bobcats were celebrated on Durango High School’s diamond before the Demons played their final home game of the season against Delta.
“I’ve played a lot of other sports, but I haven’t made as close of friends in any of them,” Arthur said. “The bonds in softball are unlike any other sport.”
As La Plata County’s only high school softball team, Durango often has Bobcats, Bayfield Wolverines and students from other schools on its roster.
“Making the drive is hard, but we’ve been doing it do so long,” Pargin said. “I don’t know anyone else at (DHS), but I know these girls and I love them.”
Unfortunately for the Demons, the weather on Friday made a challenging foe even tougher. The game was delayed by lightning after the top of the third inning and it didn’t restart for roughly an hour and 15 minutes.
“The weather was not on our side, but I enjoyed it,” Pargin said.
The game was close early, but one error in the second got multiplied and led to a big Panther inning.
Delta plated one run in the first with a pair of singles.
Cori Davis nearly tied the game in the bottom of the first, but her bomb to left field was caught at the warning track.
In the top of the second, Arthur nearly got out of a jam on the mound. With two runners on and two outs, Arthur got a Panther to hit a ground ball to her shortstop. The throw to first, however, was a little high. Durango’s first baseman got a glove on it, but the ball bounced free and hit the Panther in the head. The Panther who was on second, meanwhile, came around to score and Delta eventually scored seven runs in the inning.
Durango responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. Avery Clair and Karina Trujillo singled to start the inning. Marcella Jimenez then scored Clair with a single and Arthur brought Trujillo home with a fielder’s choice.
Before Durango could add to it’s momentum, however, lightning delayed the game.
DHS added one more run when the game resumed when Davis hit a double to score Molly Best.
“Cori hit the ball well today,” said DHS head coach Sara Clair, noting a second shot to the warning track was also caught.
Delta, however, got a grand slam from Tatem Miller in the sixth and won the game 16-3.
Delta improved to 11-3 overall with the win while DHS dipped to 2-10.
“Today was disappointing,” Arthur said. “It was not like I thought it would go, but I think we did better when we came back.”
“I’m seeing improvement every game, but we have to keep grinding,” coach Clair said. “We’re still making some errors and we’re trying to clean that up.”
DHS was also scheduled to play Montezuma-Cortez on Saturday after it got rained out on Tuesday.
DHS also has 10 road games remaining.
“The teams we’re playing are harder teams, but I’m hoping to get at least a few more wins,” Arthur said.
“We do really good in practice, but we just tense up in games,” Pargin said. “If we release that a bit, that will be on our side.”