Demons open season with win over Fairfield

FAIRFIELD - Nerves are to be expected in the first game of a totally unique baseball season caused by the coronavirus.

The Washington High School baseball team overcame those nerves for a 14-3 victory over the Trojans Monday.

'It was a matter of sticking with it,” Washington coach Nathan Miller said. 'The first few innings I could tell the guys were tense. We were seeing the ball good and we had a couple good swings but I thought we were jumping at the ball. We settled in the second time through the lineup so we had fantastic effort by our guys at the plate.”

The fantastic effort led to two home runs by the Demons.

Washington evened things up at three in the top of the fourth inningwhen Reece Mayer homered. The tie broke in the top of the fifth when Luke Turner homered on a 3-0 count, scoring two runs.

'It started out with Reece,” Miller said. 'Brady Knutson gets on and I told the guys, ‘All it takes is for Trevor Quigley to get on and we can tie this came up. Reece hit two bombs in batting practice today into the wind, so he has the power. Turner gave us a good at bat.”

Washington scored seven runs in the seventh inning. The offensive onslaught by Washington was led by Wilx Witthoft, Lucas Kroll, Ethan Zieglowsky, Brandon Dickel, Ethan Patterson, and Turner, all sending runners across the plate with RBIs in the inning.

Patterson pitched Washington to victory. He allowed six hits and three runs over four innings, striking out five. Knutson threw two and two-thirds innings in relief out of the bullpen.

Max Weaton took the loss for Fairfield. He surrendered four runs on three hits over one inning, striking out two. Ellan Ledger started the game and he lasted four innings, allowing three hits and three runs while striking out three and walking one.

Carter Ferrel, Connor Lyons, Drew Martin, Matthew Swanson, Bradley Smithburg, and Landon Kooiker each managed one hit to lead the Trojans.

'We are young even though we have eight seniors because they didn't see a lot of action last year,” Fairfield head coach Joshua Allison said. 'We made some mistakes but those are things we will learn from. Both of those homers were mistakes but we kind of deflated a bit after that. Those pitches were not where they were supposed to be. We made some plays but we made some mistakes and we will learn.

I think we have been spoiled the last couple years but we will get better.”