Demons roll over Wildcats

Early offense was the perfect recipe for a young Washington softball team on Wednesday evening.

The Demons plated 10 runs in the first two innings in the season opener against Columbus, en route to a 15-3 victory in five innings.

?I really liked the way we were swinging the bats,? Washington head coach Angie Shrader said. ?We weren?t necessarily crushing the ball, but we put it in play and that?s what we needed to do. I was really impressed with our baserunning. We took a lot of extra bases. We had a couple of things, but those are minimal. Coming out with a lot of kids who have zero varsity experience, it was a good victory for us.?

Sophomore Mackenzie Knutson earned the win for the Demons (1-0), striking out four and allowing one hit and three walks.

?She did well,? Shrader said. ?She has some things she needs to work through, as her right hand is bruised. For what her injury is, she did a nice job and had a nice outing.?

Senior Kolbi Breard reached base in all four of her attempts, hitting three singles and drawing a first-inning walk. She ended the game with two runs scored and four RBIs, while eighth-grader Haylee Wilson reached four times as well (two walks and two singles) while scoring two runs.

The Demons opened up the game by loading the bases with two outs, when a Kayla Andrew single scored two runs to break the scoreless tie. Andrew and Brooke Stout each came around to score on a wild pitch, as the Demons put up four runs in the first half inning of the season.

In the second inning, the Demons turned three hits, two walks and a hit batter into six runs, with Breard and senior Anna Wheeler each notching a pair of RBIs, as Washington took a 10-0 lead after two innings.

After Washington added two more in the top of the third, Columbus got its bats going in the third.

Using three walks and a single, the Wildcats brought home three runs as the team batted around the entire order.

?The first couple of innings, it was hard for them to get picked back up after what happened,? Columbus head coach Tim Milder said. ?They had to make a decision of whether to play three innings or play more, and they made that decision to play more.?

The Demons shut the Wildcats down defensively after that, only allowing one baserunner the rest of the way, which came on an error.

Washington picked up a run on a Breard single in the fourth, then a sacrifice fly from Megan Mitchell and an RBI single from Morgan Brinning put the Demons up by 12, ending the game after five innings.

Shrader said that for her youthful team, the benefits of just experiencing a true varsity game was important.

?Some of our younger kids just need to know what they need to do,? Shrader said. ?Sometimes they were frozen in their tracks because they weren?t sure when they should back up. There were a lot of nerves at the plate tonight. I put a couple of kids in purposely so they could have their panic attacks and be done with it. It?s a different mentality of playing varsity ball. We just wanted to work some nerves out.?

The Wildcats (1-1) will also feature a young team in 2015, as they started an eighth-grader, Anna Hamilton, in the circle. She and senior Kelsey Pretz will be the main pitchers for the team, as they look to build on last year?s 9-20 campaign.

?I think we are capable of it,? Milder said. ?We started an eighth-grader tonight to get her some reps and she handled adversity really well. We have a young team with three seniors, and then everyone else in our lineup is underclassmen. We would have liked to see it earlier in the game, but we are pretty happy.?

Columbus will face Pekin on Thursday, while Washington will have a tough test in its home opener, facing state-qualifying Highland on Friday night.