Devils Defeat Pacers in Softball

The DHS varsity softball team won almost effortlessly against Grant Union High on April 24, a day of perfect weather.

At the end of the game, the Blue Devils had 18 runs to the Pacers’ 1 run.

Although the Pacers were not very strong, the Blue Devils kept up their enthusiasm and played well.

The game’s first inning foreshadowed the eventual DHS win. The Blue Devils quickly gave Grant three outs, then raked in nine runs before the inning’s end. It wasn’t until the fourth inning that the Pacers were able to complete a run.

Both of the Blue Devil pitchers, Kaitlyn Lagattuta in the first inning and Alexandra Barbaria in the rest, threw consistently in the strike zone and cut short the Pacer part of each inning. The Pacer pitcher, in contrast, often threw foul balls.

In one dazzling moment in the first inning, Melanie Habib hit a home run. The Grant team collected themselves after that, and caught the majority of her later hits.

Even with such lopsided teams, however, the game was fun to watch. Chants and encouraging yells rang out from the DHS bench whenever a Blue Devil was up to bat. The opposing team was similarly supportive, calling out the jersey number of each Grant batter and applauding good hits.

The spirit between the two teams was one of camaraderie. When DHS players had a little break between innings and came to speak with their parents in the bleachers, one could be heard to say “they [the Pacers] have gotten better… they’re all really nice people.”

Assistant Coach John Penanka said, “You don’t always play the best teams, and Grant is in a rebuilding year, so we used this game to prepare for the next games.” Depending on the outcomes of the softball team’s upcoming games, the team could make it into the playoffs.