AURORA — To Mikayla Duffy, it felt like her Central (G.J.) softball team had to beat Arvada West three times just to win once.
And the junior pitcher was fine with that.
In a bizarre contest in which momentum changed hands with the frequency of a Las Vegas poker chip, the No. 7 Warriors outlasted Arvada West 11-6 in eight innings in a rare high-scoring duel involving two of the better teams in 5A.
It was the first of three games for each team Friday in the Dave Sanders Memorial Softball Tournament at Aurora Sports Park.
“It definitely was a tough game, but I know my team was going to keep getting up,” said Duffy, whose squad entered the tournament 4-0. “My team is always behind me with the bats and the gloves, and we did awesome.”
The Warriors had to persevere just to be in position for their five-run rally with two outs in the top of the eighth. They took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first only to watch the Wildcats trim it to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning.
Then Central added what appeared to be two insurance runs in the top of the seventh to take command 6-3. Arvada West tied it in the bottom of the inning with Alyssa Carter’s two-run single forcing extra innings. The Warriors finally put away the pesky Wildcats with the eighth-inning eruption, which began with Tayler Else’s two-run single and included run-producing hits by Danielle Romine and Duffy.
“We did great with the bats,” Duffy said. “We had hits through our whole lineup.”
That wasn’t merely a general comment, as indeed, all nine in the Warriors’ lineup produced at least one hit en route to 13 overall. Romine, Else and Brittany Hoppe each drove in two runs and Duffy three.
Arvada West, which entered the tournament 3-2, lost its second straight heartbreaker. A-West fell 1-0 in 12 innings at Ponderosa on Thursday.
“We have a different make-up this year, and we need to come together as a team,” Wildcats coach Tod Bunker said. “That’s starting to happen.”
Susie Oury, who struck out 15 Thursday, started in the pitching circle but gave way in the first to Mariah Trujillo.
