Demons scare No. 2 West Delaware

MANCHESTER - In most of its softball games this season, the Washington High School Demons started out in a low gear before shifting into higher gears as the game went on. The Demons opened the 2020 postseason the same way, falling behind Grinnell 7-1 before putting up eight runs in the fifth inning of a 10-7 win last Thursday.

The Demons scored a huge postseason win Saturday on the road at Clear Creek-Amana by shifting into overdrive right from the beginning. The first three Demons in the batting order scored in the top of the first inning. Those three runs held up for a 3-1 victory over the Clippers, a team that has been to the state tournament 34 times.

Tuesday, when the Demons played in a regional final for the first time since 2014, Washington again waited until late in the game to shift its offensive engine into a higher gear.

Washington was facing the second-ranked team in Class 4A, a team with a record of 20-4, a team that had won 15 consecutive games, a team that was an overwhelming favorite.

'Coming in and scouting them, we knew one through nine, they were tough outs,” Washington head coach Ben Obermann said. 'High averages, coming in with the second-best offense in the state, so we just mixed our pitches in and out.”

Washington may have lost the game 8-2, but it was also obvious the Demons could have won.

Washington had the tying run at the plate in the sixth inning and RyLee Fishback, whose home run was the difference in the postseason comeback win over Grinnell, hit a shot that looked like it had a chance.

'(It was a) rocket right at the center fielder,” Obermann said. 'That's how the game goes sometimes.”

Washington gave up two runs in the first inning, one in the fourth and two in the fifth before the sixth-inning offensive charge when it plated two runs and threatened West Delaware with the possibility of a 5-5 game.

'We gave ourselves a shot, and that's all you can ask for in this game against a really, really good team in West Delaware,” Obermann said. 'Had you told me a week ago we'd be in this position, I definitely would have signed up for that.”

No team in Class 4A is hotter than the West Delaware Hawks, but Washington battled and nearly threw ice on that hot streak.

'I'm extremely proud of the girls and grateful for the opportunity to coach them,” Obermann said.

Kellie Dallmeyer had two of Washington's five hits in the game. Alexa Mitchell, Fishback and Emma Herr provided the other hits. Kinsey Duwa and Dallmeyer scored the runs.

Cara Linnekamp walked five and struck out two, giving up eight hits. Only three of the Hawks' eight runs were earned.

'she had the changeup working,” Obermann said. 'We tried to keep them off balance the best we could. They didn't hit too many hard. They just placed it well. They've got a good mixture of speed and contact hitters in their lineup. Cara battled for us, gave us a chance.”

The Demons went 2-8 in their last 10 regular-season games but those were just tune-up games for the playoffs.

'We hit the reset button when the postseason started,” Obermann said. 'You've got to give our girls a lot of credit. We believed in ourselves. We believed tonight.”

Washington finished the season with a record of 10-18.

'The regular season didn't go as we would've hoped from a wins perspective, but this group kept competing, kept working, and kept believing,” Obermann said. 'That's why we were able to reach our potential at the end of the season.”

There are two seasons in most sports and while one usually equals success in the other, one is more important than the other.

'I'd choose making it to a regional final every season over a great win-loss record,” Obermann said. 'We need to work on being more consistent during the regular season, but we're always building for July and this year was a result of a lot of hard work and resiliency by the girls to give us a shot at state, and we proved we belonged by playing the No. 2 team in the state very close.”

Playing in the first regional final in six years is quite an accomplishment for the Demons.

'What I'm most proud of is how resilient the girls were,” Obermann said. 'Even when the losses were mounting, we never quit. Our attitudes were outstanding and we peaked at the right time. If there were 15-20 games left to play this season, I think you would've seen a lot of wins coming our way. We were a dangerous and complete team to finish the season.”