Demons complete season sweep with two wins

WASHINGTON ? Washington sophomore Lauren Vittetoe hadn?t had a base hit all night, and was 0-for-3 at the plate.

But her drive to the left-field fence in the third inning of the second game of a Southeast Conference softball doubleheader with Fairfield drove in two runs and proved to be the game-winner as the Demons won a rain-shortened contest 3-1 in five innings. No. 12 Washington won the opening game 5-2.

?I don?t think I?ve been hitting very well lately, so it felt good to finally get a hit,? Vittetoe said after the game. ?It was right across the plate, and I just made good contact.?

Washington freshman Maddie Bohr led off in the first inning with a single. She stole second base and scored on senior Lucy Libe?s slap hit through the left side.

?Maddie and Lucy are batting extremely well right now,? Washington head coach Angie Shrader said. ?Lucy?s batting .532 and Maddie?s batting .481. They?ve both got an on-base percentage of over .500. You want your first two batters to get on base. When you?ve got batters like Maddie and Lucy who hit that well and have that kind of speed, you?re going to score a lot of runs.?

Fairfield tied the game when junior Brittany Craff led off the second inning with a solo home run.

?When Brittany gets a hold of it, she hits it pretty hard,? Fairfield head coach Bob Bradfield said. ?That made it 1-1 and gave us a lift.?

But Washington pitcher Greta Smeins retired 12 of the next 14 batters and didn?t allow a runner past first base. Smeins gave up just three hits, struck out seven and did not issue a walk in five innings.

Bohr drew a leadoff walk in the third inning, and Libe singled to shortstop. The two runners advanced a base on freshman Sammy Ellingson?s sacrifice bunt. Then, with two outs, Vittetoe came up with the game-winning hit.

?It was a big hit,? Shrader said. ?It goes back to getting people on right away and putting the pressure on. Maddie walked, Lucy singled, and Sammy put down a great bunt to move them into scoring position. If you don?t have them in scoring position, they may not score two runs off of Lauren?s hit.?

After the fifth inning, lightning delayed the game, and play was never resumed. Because five innings had been played, the game was ruled complete.

?We had two more innings we could have played,? Bradfield said. ?It would have been nice to have a chance. It was 3-1, and we had been getting some runners on base here and there.?

A Fairfield error opened the floodgates for the Demons (16-3, 9-3 SEC) in the first game. With two outs in the second inning, Washington senior Katey Jo Jenkins reached on an error. Freshman Kaitlin Buchholz and sophomore Blair Farris drew walks from Fairfield pitcher Haley Grunwald to load the bases, and then junior Tara Zwer hit an RBI single. Bohr followed with a two-RBI single, and Libe had an RBI single to make it 4-0.

Fairfield sophomore Tori Ogden was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the third inning to drive in a run. The Demons answered with a run in the bottom of the frame on Buchholz?s RBI sacrifice fly.

The Trojans (5-14, 2-8 SEC) mounted a rally in the seventh inning. With two outs, senior Jessica Cay singled and scored on sophomore Taylor Neil?s single. Ogden reached base on an error and Craff drew a walk to load the bases, but Smeins struck out senior Samantha Nystrom to end the game. Smeins struck out 12 batters in the first game of the doubleheader.

?It was nice to finish with a strikeout and not let them score three or four runs and make a game of it,? Shrader said. ?Greta pitched really well. She?s struck out a lot of people lately and has been throwing very well.?

While Smeins? pitching was a strength for the Demons in the doubleheader, it was a weakness for the Trojans.

?Our pitchers are just young and inexperienced,? Bradfield said. ?They had no varsity experience before this year. We?re just sort of at the mercy, at times, of the other team?s hitters. Both of those gals can have spells where they?re just not throwing strikes. That?s part of being a young pitcher.?

Although none of the wins were pretty, the Demons won all four conference games against the rival Trojans this season.

?It feels pretty good, especially when there?s a lot of pressure because we?re doing pretty good in the conference,? Vittetoe said. ?I think we?re pretty happy about getting a sweep.?