Fairfield baseball team takes 2 over the Demons Thursday

It was clear from the beginning of the evening that the Fairfield Trojans came to play and they would do so in a strong fashion against the Demons Thursday, June 1.

Fairfield held an early lead in the first game after having a two-run homer over the right field fence would put them on the board.

That made it hard for the Demons to recover as they wouldn?t score in the remainder of the first.

The second inning would pick up where the first one left off as Fairfield would have the ball land in nearly the same spot as the one did in the first to add another run to the board.

A three-run homer later in the second would put the score 6-0.

Washington wouldn?t have a chance to score until the third after a fly ball at first base would allow Ryan Loy to cross the plate.

After getting the bases loaded in the fourth, Fairfield would hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in a run.

Fairfield would hit a drive to center field bringing in another run, putting the score at 8-1 after four.

Fairfield hit a fly ball to the left field fence, bringing in a runner from second base. A sacrifice fly would bring in another run.

A fly to the left field fence allowed another run to score.

Washington worked on reducing some of their deficit in the bottom of the fifth by scoring four runs. Aaron Vittetoe, Collin Zear, Luke Turner and Bryce Craff would each cross the plate.

Fairfield?s scoring ways continued in the sixth as a run would score on a wild pitch and another run would cross the plate after a sacrifice fly.

Washington added one more run in the seventh, this one coming from Kiowa Keith on a fly up the middle.

However, it wasn?t enough, as the Trojans won the first game 13-6.

In the second game, it took until the second inning for a score. Fairfield crossed the plate first on a single.

Another run was added in the third on a fly past the shortstop.

Washington scored in the bottom of the third on a fly to center field by Zear which allowed Keith to score. Washington trailed by one run after three.

It was a three-run inning for Fairfield in the fourth. Washington scored a run in the bottom the fourth when Noah Enfield scored on a fly by Michael Gier to put the score at 5-2.

After getting the bases loaded in the fifth, Fairfield scored three additional runs.

The Demons added a run in the bottom of the fifth, on an RBI by Craff. The score was 8-3 after five.

In the top of the sixth, Fairfield scored on a single. Washington worked on their recovery by scoring three runs.

One run came from Gier, Loy and Zach Londberg, but it wasn?t enough as Fairfield scored three runs in the seventh to end the game at 12-6.

Coach Nathan Miller contributed the losses to pitching defense.

?Offensively, at the beginning of the night, if you would have asked me if we?d have 24 hits in two games and get swept, I would have told you ?no way.?

?The way our defense played and our pitching has been the first full week and a half of the season, I would have not seen that coming. We just did not play well defensively tonight.

?We allowed too many free bases and Fairfield is a good hitting team. When you give them extra out and free bases, they will take advantage of it. That was the name of the game tonight.

?There?s not a lot of difference between the two teams other than they played a cleaner game than we did.?

One positive was by catcher Bryce Craff at the plate. That is something he has worked on.

?He?s working his butt off back there and we talked about pitching 0-0 curve balls into the dirt against good teams.

?They will be disciplined to allow that to become a strike.

?We teach the same the same thing. You are looking for a fast ball with no strikes on you. If it?s off, you?re living another day.

?We have to be able to roll a curve ball into the strike zone and not make him work as hard.?

Despite the losses, Miller is still positive.

?The silver lining about all of this whole thing is we?ve had a good first two weeks. We?re 7-2. Offensively, we?re swinging it really strong. With 24 hits in two games is outstanding and holding them to single hits on both games as well.

?It just comes down to shoring up some defensive lapses that we had and prevent some walks that we had in the first game.?

Focusing on the defense will be the team?s focus as they get ready to face Keokuk Monday.

?For sure. Going into this game, when we threw the first strike, opponents were hitting .190.

?That?s a pretty big statistic to be thinking about. It?s something we?re going to concentrate on in practice and also Monday as we get ready.?

The first of two games starts at 5:30 p.m. Monday, June 5, in Keokuk.