Demon softball goes 1-2 over weekend

The Washington softball team played in a trio of games over the weekend as part of the annual Fairfield softball tournament.

The Demons suffered a pair of tough losses to open the tournament, falling 7-2 to Cardinal and 6-5 to Chariton, but rebounded with a strong offensive performance against West Burlington, winning 10-5.

?Our at-bats improved,? Washington softball head coach Ben Obermann said. ?Just looking at Saturday, coming off of Friday, our at-bats improved and we didn?t beat ourselves offensively. We ran the bases well as well. We have solid team speed, but we haven?t been stealing too many bases. We are working on getting reads from first, and working on our small ball.?

During Friday?s contest against Cardinal, the Comets jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after two innings.

Halle Leyden scored the Demons? first run of the game, reaching on an error and later coming around to score, while Morgan Brinning was hit by a pitch in the sixth, and scored on a wild pitch.

Cardinal tacked on two more runs in the seventh, as the Demons were handed the loss.

?We came out flat,? Obermann said. ?We went into the game thinking this was one we could definitely get, but we beat ourselves as a team. We made some mistakes early, and couldn?t recover. We gave them too many extra outs on the defensive side, so that stung because we felt like we gave that one away.?

In Saturday?s first game against Chariton, the game went back and forth, with the Demons taking a 2-0 lead with Brinning and Haylee Wilson both scoring after being hit by a pitch.

Chariton responded with three runs in the third, before a three-hit fourth scored Mackenzie Knutson and Kenzie Duwa.

Washington tacked on another run in the fifth, with Megan Mitchell earning a walk and Molly Sparks coming around to score as a pinch runner.

With a 5-3 lead, the Demons looked on their way to a win, before Chariton scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to claim the victory.

?We played pretty well in that game,? Obermann said. ?It was a tough loss, but we didn?t beat ourselves. We had a 5-3 lead going into the bottom of the last inning, and just couldn?t hold on. We had opportunities earlier in the game to blow it open, so if we could have executed a little better offensively, we might have been talking about a win there.?

Washington had to recover quickly, with a game against West Burlington right after the Chariton game, and came out fast.

Knutson reached on an error, followed by a Duwa sacrifice, and a Buchholz walk.

Morgan Brinning reached on a fielder?s choice and a Megan Mitchell single helped Washington to a 3-0 first-inning lead.

Sydney Clark added a run in the second inning, but West Burlington came back and took the lead in the third, scoring five runs.

Washington responded with a three-run fourth inning, before tacking on three more in the fifth to secure the victory.

?We had to play that game about 15 minutes after the loss to Chariton, and we came out and put a three-spot on the board,? Obermann said. ?Everyone throughout the lineup contributed. It was our best offensive performance since the Columbus game. We swung it well and that?s what we want to see.?

Washington will have a day off today, as they focus their attention on Thursday?s contest at Fort Madison.

?We had a good lift (on Monday) and I know a lot of them are enjoying the fact they have a day off,? Obermann said. ?They are getting together as a team today and doing some team bonding, non-softball stuff, just hanging out. That?s a great thing since we have girls at so many different age levels.?