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Durango softball ends season with extra-inning win against Montezuma-Cortez

Demons end the season with an extra-inning thriller

The final game of Durango’s softball season couldn’t have been scripted any better.

DHS senior Cami Bisbee pitched a complete game to get the win while another senior, Shilo Gillen, got the game-winning hit that plated senior Danica Dudley in a 13-12, walkoff win against Montezuma-Cortez in nine innings.

Bisbee went the distance in the circle, and Rebekah Ford did most of the damage for the offense by going 3-for-5 with two walks, three runs scored and four runs batted in.

“We had a tough season this year, but I’m so proud of these girls for the way they handled themselves and the perseverence we showed,” said DHS second-year head coach Chelsea Rodriguez. “This group of seniors means so much to me, and I’m so glad that this is the way they’ll remember our final game together.”

The game started with lightning surrounding Aspen Field at Fort Lewis College, and there was a question whether the game would even get played. Almost two hours and forty minutes later, they were still playing.

Bisbee was perfect through the first three innings, and the Demons (4-15, 2-8 Class 4A/5A Southwestern League) had some early opportunities that fell by the wayside. Panthers pitcher Tayla Topaha wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the second inning and a first and second, nobody out scenario in the third to keep the game scoreless.

In the fourth, two Durango errors led to the first Cortez run without Bisbee giving up a hit, but the Demons answered right back with a two-run single by Katrina Chandler that gave them a 2-1 lead.

Ford scored on a passed ball in the fifth inning, and her two-run double in the sixth gave the Demons a 5-2 lead.

The Panthers (2-14, 0-10 SWL) were down to their last out in the seventh inning before Stevee Brennen’s two-out, three-run triple tied the game at 5. Bisbee stayed strong and retired the next batter to give the Demons a chance to win in the bottom half, but they were unable to do so.

“I just wanted to keep throwing strikes, and I knew my teammates would make plays behind me,” said Bisbee, daughter of Rhonda Bisbee. “I thought about it being my last game, and I’m going to miss it.”

Bisbee and the Demons just kept plugging away, and it looked as though they didn’t want the game, or their high school careers, to end.

Cortez took an 8-5 lead in the eighth inning, but Durango scored three in the bottom half to tie the game again.

The Panthers added four more in the top half of the ninth, and another comeback seemed unlikely.

However, when Chandler and senior Kelly Perry scored on Ford’s two-run single and Joie Raybourn scored on a hit by Dudley, Gillen had the chance to end her career in walk-off fashion.

“I was kind of nervous so I just kept praying, and I felt like I could do it,” said Gillen, daughter of Daniel and Sally Gillen. “When I hit it, I didn’t realize that it had gone through, but I saw Danica cross home plate and I just kept running.”

The hit was a rocket in the hole between second and first, and it was hit so hard it got through the right fielder with no chance of a play at the plate on Dudley.

“I was just thinking, ‘yay Shilo,’” said Dudley, daughter of Ed and Karla Dudley. “This is my family right here.”

In a season that wasn’t as successful as any of them would have hoped, the last game was certainly something that they’ll remember forever.

“I feel amazing, and it feels great to get a team win against our rival to end our careers here,” said Perry, daughter of Heidi and Joel Perry. “I’m so thankful to have been a part of this. I love these girls.”

jfries@durangoherald.com

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