Demon baseball looking for quality to start the season

Last season, the Washington baseball team played nine games that were decided by two runs or fewer.

The Demons lost seven of those close games. If they were able to alter those outcomes with them finishing on top, it would have meant a .500 record.

That isn?t lost on Washington baseball head coach Nathan Miller as they come into a new season.

?If everyone can make incremental gains, those tight games we were in, we are on the other side,? Miller said. ?That will make our quality at-bats higher amd we?ll be getting more on base. That?s what we are hoping to see through some of our incremental changes.?

With nearly everyone back this season, the Demons will look to build off a 6-20 campaign, led by a pair of seniors and a crew of juniors.

Miller noted that it?s going to be up to the juniors to pick up the roles of seniors this season.

?When we have 14 juniors ... it?s almost like we have seniors A and seniors B,? Miller said. ?Those guys have graduated from their junior year, and most of these guys have played one or two years of varsity baseball already.?

With so much experience coming back this season, the team chemistry is evident on the field, as Miller noted that this year marked ?the best first week of practice I have ever had in 12 years of coaching.?

?A lot of people have been putting more effort into practice and it?s been showing,? Washington junior Michael Gier said. ?It shows the talent that we have. It?s great knowing that we have a team that is starting to know each other more and is playing at a mature level for baseball.?

That maturity should help them this year, as the Achilles? heel for the Demons was one bad inning, typically coming late in the game.

?We do a lot more scrimmaging in practice, and a few more pressure situations, and they?ve responded really well,? Miller said. ?When you look at our close games last year, most of them, we were tied or up and the mistakes happened at the end. What that means is that we got a little tight, but this year they are looser and more relaxed.?

With a different practice regimen than last year, the Demons have seen it pay off, especially with the fun they are having.

?We switched some things up this year, where we ran practice a little different,? Washington senior Michael Ellingson said. ?That?s really helped us. When you take a lot of ground balls in a row, you start to lose some effort, because it gets repetitive. We?ve switched it up and it keeps everyone into it, and we have good chemistry as a team after a pretty good spring league.?

Offensively, the top returning hitters based on last years? statistics for the Demons are juniors Ryan Loy and Dakota Kron, who each batted over .300 a season ago.

The focus in the batting cages this season has been on making sure those hits count, and getting the speed of their swings up, so they can hit the ball farther.

?We?ve been focused on the exit velocity, and how fast the ball comes off the bat,? Miller said. ?We started out with two guys in the 80 (mph range), and now we have 15 guys in the 80s and two in the 90s.?

On the mound, the Demons return a slew of arms, led by Collin Zear?s 3.61 ERA.

?We need to get our pitchers? arms stronger, so we can pitch deep into games,? Miller said. ?We want guys in the 85-90 pitches per game range. Tanner Coleman has looked really good this spring, and Zach (Londberg) and Collin (Zear), along with Michael Gier have pitched a lot of innings for us. Dakota Kron is going to be in our closer role.?

The Demons will open their season on Tuesday with a road contest against Eddyville-Blakesburg, with a home doubleheader against Clear Creek-Amana on Wednesday.