Demons earn home split with rival Trojans

After Game 1 on Monday night, there was a lot of joy among the Washington softball team.

The Demons used a complete seven-inning performance and finally saw their hard work pay off, knocking off a ranked conference rival, as they defeated No. 9 ranked Fairfield 2-1 in the first game of a doubleheader.

?It was a huge winner for our program moving forward,? Washington softball head coach Ben Obermann said. ?They are a top 10 team and have won nine in a row. That?s just putting everything together. We had the clutch hit when we needed it, and we had great pitching and defense. That?s what makes the game fun. It was awesome to see our hard work pay off.?

The pitching came from the arm of Molly Sparks, who held the Trojans at bay, including in some high-pressure situations late in the game.

?Definitely my fastball inside was working very well,? Sparks said. ?My curve was OK, and it was coming in nicely, so I got some strikeouts with that. We were trying to hold them. If I hit my spots, I?d get pop ups, and that?s what happened.?

Sparks? gem allowed her to get through the first five innings of the contest stranding five Trojan runners, but the Demon offense wasn?t able to get her much help early on.

Despite getting baserunners on, Washington stranded the bases loaded twice in the first three innings, and were held scoreless until the fourth inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, Sparks took matters into her own hands and got on base, before Jessie Buchholz hit a double to put runners at second and third with one out.

Megan Mitchell singled in courtesy runner Kylee Porter, before Morgan Brinning had an RBI single of her own to score Buchholz, putting Washington on top 2-0.

In the sixth, Fairfield got its bats rolling, as they plated a run, and had the bases loaded with one out.

Sparks responded with a strikeout and got the next batter to ground out to get out of the inning.

?I was very impressed,? Obermann said. ?For being a freshman, she?s really elevating her game and acting like she?s a sophomore. This experience is only going to make her better down the road. She?s starting to look like the ace of our staff.?

Fairfield put one baserunner on in the seventh, but a grab by Mackenzie Knutson in centerfield ended the game, giving the Demons the win.

?It ranks pretty high,? Sparks said. ?We haven?t beat Fairfield in a while, so that was pretty awesome. Since they are ranked, that?s awesome for us.?

Despite the win, the Demons still left 12 runners on base, meaning the game could have been won by even more runs.

?We left a lot of runners on base, and we had opportunities to blow this game open,? Obermann said. ?We had good approaches and eventually those big hits will come. To still get the win, and not play our best offensively, that says a lot.?

In Game 2, the Trojans opened the game up quickly, plating a pair of runs in the first inning, and eventually taking a 5-0 lead after the top of the fourth.

The Demons answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, after a two-RBI single by Alexa Mitchell, but a five-run sixth inning helped put the game away, as Fairfield won the second contest 11-2.

?We didn?t really beat ourselves too badly,? Obermann said. ?We had one mistake that led to three runs defensively. We had good at-bats and good approaches against the best pitcher in our league. We competed from the first to the last inning, and we battled. We don?t care what the score is, we are battling.?

The conference split puts Washington at 7-17 overall, matching last season?s win total.

The Demons will prepare for an intracounty rivalry, as Mid-Prairie will come to town on Wednesday evening, and Obermann isn?t planning to overlook the Golden Hawks.

?I want to see us continue with a few more approach things at the plate,? Obermann said. ?I want to enhance our offense as best we can. Mid-Prairie is another very solid opponent for us, and that?s what we want to see this time of year. To have a chance of going to Fort Dodge, we have to beat the best teams.?