Demons softball team wins both games against Fort Madison

The Washington softball team pulled out two wins over Fort Madison Thursday, June 15. The first game ended with a 7-4 outcome and the second game ended with a 5-1 score.

In the first game Jessie Buchholz started off the scoring for the Demons followed by Morgan Brinning and Hannah Anderson.

Megan Mitchell scored a run in the second inning, adding to the Demons? lead. Buchholz crossed the plate in the fourth, putting the score at 5-0.

Fort Madison closed the game in the fifth when they scored four runs, putting the game within one.

Washington answered back in the seventh with Buchholz and Brinning both scoring to end the game at 7-4.

In the second game, the game started off with no one scoring for the first three innings.

Things changed in the fourth as Halle Leyden, Brooke Stout and Anderson each came up with a run to put the score at 3-0.

Fort Madison scored a run in the top of the fifth, to put the score at 3-1, but Washington scored two more runs in their half of the fifth to secure the victory.

Coach Ben Obermann is pleased with the outcome of the night.

?In the first game, we came out and got an early three-run lead in the bottom of the first inning.

?Our Achilles? heel this season has been slow starts. Playing with a lead early was big and it allowed us to relax.

?It also gave Molly [Sparks] the chance to just attack the Fort Madison hitters early on.

?We had good approaches at the plate in the first game and scored early. We scored a little bit in the middle, and tacked on two at the end to give us a little bit of a cushion going into the seventh inning.

?Offensively, we did enough. We played really well.

?The second game started off as a pitcher?s duel,? Obermann adds, ?until the middle innings when we broke through for three and ended up scoring runs in back-to-back innings.

?It was nice for Alexa Mitchell to get a win. She?s been our tough luck loser this year. She did a nice job spotting the ball, moving in and out and really mixing speeds.?

Obermann says it?s always nice to get two wins.

?Anytime you can sweep in our conference, it?s a big night. The girls were excited as well, and they should be.

?They are such a great group to coach. I have a blast with them.

?They show up every day, work hard and they really want to do well. That?s awesome to see.

?They really love this game and it makes coming to work every day enjoyable. They should enjoy this, going 4-0 on Fort Madison.

?We surpassed our win total from last year and that?s just a start.

?They want to keep growing, and getting beyond that, obviously. We?re taking some positive strides forward.?

The girls play in a tournament Saturday and at Fairfield Monday, June 19.

?We play Wayne and Albia Saturday and they are two quality teams,? Obermann says.

?Fairfield is now ranked No. 2 in the state. They?re the team to be right now.

?We had them on the ropes at our place but we are excited about another opportunity to play Fairfield. It was a really heated battle here. We are going there with a lot of confidence.

?Our girls know we played right with them for two games. In my eyes, we can compete with anybody if we can play our game.?

The girls have a 13-10 record. The first tournament game in Oskaloosa begins at 12:45 p.m. Monday?s action starts at 5:30 p.m.