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Washington Evening Journal
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Season ends for Washington softball
Demons fall in state consolation; Greiner named to All-Tournament team
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FORT DODGE — A historic Washington softball season ended on Wednesday, as the Demons wrapped up their trip to the 2025 Class 3A state softball tournament.
The Demons battled to the final out against Estherville-Lincoln Central, but couldn’t scoop up a win in Fort Dodge. The Midgets outlasted Washington 3-1.
Washington had a slow start defensively, giving up two runs in the second inning. That put the Demons behind the eight ball, with one of the state’s best pitchers on the other side of the diamond.
ELC’s Rylee Yager, who didn’t give up an earned run in a 2-1 walk-off loss to Albia, was a tough cookie to crack for the Demon offense. Washington’s only run came in the top of the third, when Ella Greiner knocked in Leighton Salazar with an RBI single.
A couple of slick plays by Reagan Miller at second base gave the Demons a shot to tie it up in the top of the fourth, but Washington was unable to push a run across, and ELC put up an insurance run of its own in the bottom half the inning.
Washington still trailed 3-1 heading into the seventh, but an error to start the inning gave the Demons some hope.
Alyvia Anderson led off the last inning with a ground ball to shortstop. The throw over to first went over the first-baseman’s head, and Anderson was able to advance to second on the throw.
Anderson wound up on third with nobody out, due to a wild pitch, but never reached home plate. Yager finished the game with three-straight strikeouts to close out a complete-game.
“We're one of eight teams in Class 3A to finish our season in Fort Dodge,” said Washington head coach Ben Obermann. “Obviously you'd like to get a couple of wins when you're up here, but we showed we belonged.”
Greiner went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the loss. The senior also had two hits in Tuesday’s state quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Williamsburg, leading her to a spot on the Class 3A All-Tournament team.
Leighton Salazar had the only two other hits for Washington. Bella Salazar gave up just three earned runs over six innings, and struck out four batters in the loss.
The loss finished off a 29-11 season, which saw Washington win its first outright conference, and state tournament berth, since 2013.
“A lot of teams would kill just to be in this position,” Obermann said. “We would have been one of those up until this year.”
Center Point-Urbana knocked off West Liberty 5-4 in the other Class 3A consolation game. In the semifinals, Wahlert Catholic knocked off PCM 7-1, and Williamsburg ran past Albia 9-1.
Albia bounced back on Friday with a third-place win over PCM, beating the Mustangs 9-1. Williamsburg then polished off a third-straight championship by beating Wahlert Catholic 3-2.
This year’s state tournament was the final stand for four Washington seniors, all of which have been a part of the program since the eighth grade. Greiner, Bella Salazar, Anderson and Halle Cuddeback all played their last games in a Demon uniform.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Demons will head into their shortened summer break and into the new school year, with some quality state tournament experience in their back pockets, for when the softball season revs up again next summer.
“The experience has been outstanding,” Obermann said. “Our girls have had fun, and they competed. I'm just super proud of them. They've made our community proud, they've made our school proud, and they've made us coaches proud.”
