Ailment torments softball standout

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Damn unknown. It always feeds our worst fears. It has this way of appearing at the most unfair times. Kayla Griffith knows of it, and it frightens her.

“The scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life,” she said.

She should have been on Field 3 at Majestic Park on Tuesday, fielding ground balls at third base, hitting cleanup, making history alongside her Arbor View High softball teammates, somehow finding a way to beat Durango in a first-round Sunset Region playoff game.

Instead, the junior assumed a dugout seat that has been hers this entire season. She watched the Aggies fall behind 4-0 and lose 8-6 in the school’s first trip to the postseason. She wanted to make a difference, thinks she could have, spent the last several years imagining herself doing just that.

The worst part: No one can really tell her why she couldn’t.

It’s crazy. No one has an answer to any of this.

Her chest tightens. She feels dizzy. Her oxygen levels drop. She can’t breathe. The ambulance is called. She is rushed to a hospital. Tests are performed. EKG. Ultrasound. Chest X-ray. Blood drawn. Specialists rush to her bedside. She is poked and prodded.

Still, nothing. No diagnosis.

There have been five such trips this season. Once, she had an episode during a bus ride to a game. Another time, teammates dialed 911 from Griffith’s home.

Her heart has checked out OK time and again. It doesn’t appear to have any relation to her asthma. The hope at this point is something anxiety-related. They could deal with that. Still, nobody knows.

“They have absolutely no clue,” said Griffith’s mother, Naoma. “She goes from being perfectly fine to not being able to breathe. It’s extremely stressful. At this point, I just want someone to tell us something so we can treat it and she will be OK.”

The anxiety issue makes most sense. It could be brought on by a right shoulder injury that has caused Griffith to undergo three surgeries and has her awaiting word on a possible fourth. She has played hard over the years in A ball and high school. Hook slides. Diving for balls. Her game is all wear and more tear.

It also could be finished, and the thought of it is killing her.

Hey, little girls dream. Griffith did. She played baseball until age 10, then joined a club softball team, and for the next several years did everything asked of her for that familiar goal. For a chance to play beyond high school. For the opportunity to wear a college uniform.

Griffith visualized it. Sweated for it. Desired it in the worst way.

Then her shoulder fell apart and her chest began to tighten one day and no one could tell her why.

“I just wanted to get a scholarship,” Griffith said. “I grew up on softball fields here. It has been my life. It’s a hard thing to accept. With my shoulder the way it is now and the (breathing episodes) … I hope to play again, but probably not. At best, there is a lot of doubt.”

Dugout cheers in softball are like golf claps following a par save. Part of the game’s fabric.

There are cheers for teammates, to distract an opposing pitcher, to motivate, to continue a rally. Arbor View players were inspired to cheer by another this season. Always, for Frank.

She can’t explain the nickname. No one can. Teammates get to messing around and all sorts of nutty things are created. Griffith became Frank. It’s not a softball thing. It’s a kids’ thing.

The feeling by some Tuesday was that Frank could have been the difference between winning and having to drop into a losers’ bracket that becomes tougher to climb out of than a mud hole 20 feet deep. Maybe.

Maybe also if the Aggies didn’t unwisely try to score a runner from third on a fly ball with one out, two runners on, trailing by three and the No. 3 and 4 hitters coming up, things might have ended differently. There it is again. The unknown.

“Kayla would have made a huge difference today,” Arbor View coach Hilary Eisen said. “Her bat is remarkable. A ton of power. Can move runners in almost any situation. We could use her anywhere. It’s a hard loss knowing you have, in my opinion, the best third baseman in the area on the bench.

“It broke her teammates’ hearts all season that she wasn’t on the field with us. But it has shown them all that there is much more to life than softball. Kayla is an amazing kid. She is the heartbeat of this team.

“She doesn’t deserve this.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.