Trojans edge out Demon softball

To the casual fan, Tuesday?s doubleheader between the Trojans and Demons was probably boring to watch, according to Fairfield head coach Bob Bradfield.

For a team that was 4-23 coming in like Washington though, the upset potential had to be exciting. However, the Demons eventually fell in both games by final scores of 4-3; 4-1.

Considering that they were trailing 3-0 when play resumed, Washington clawed their way back early. After coaxing a scoreless inning from the Trojans? offense, the Demons had six consecutive batters reach base to tie the game up.

Megan Mitchell singled past Trojan third baseman Mackenzie McClure to score Megan Strabala, putting the Demons on the board.

Brooke Stout then singled in Morgan Brinning with another shot to left-center to make it 3-2, moving Mitchell over to third as well.

Mitchell would slide in to tie the game on a grounder to first by Haylee Wilson.

?Our bats were going and then they stopped after that,? said head coach Angie Shrader. ?It?s been a down year, and unfortunately, I think [we] expect people to come back and beat us and it happened. We need to keep fighting and playing for seven innings. We always seem to have that one bad inning, and it happened again tonight.?

Washington threatened to score again in the fifth, getting back-to-back singles from Brinning and Mitchell, but Deao got Stout to pop out to first to end the danger.

The Trojans would get a single from Williams and a walk to pinch-hitter Sara Trent, but there were no real scoring threats again until the final inning.

McClure led the seventh off with a single past Brinning. She advanced to second on a walk to Ashtyn Drish and scored on Kelsey Roberts? walk-off single.

Deao picked up the win for Fairfield, allowing seven hits and three runs over seven innings. The junior struck out four and walked only one.

Junior starter Mackenzie Knutson suffered the loss in a complete game effort.

Washington took a 1-0 lead in the third inning of Game 2, but couldn?t scratch across any more runs as Fairfield came back to win 4-1 in the night cap.

Strabala singled to start the third inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mitchell. She stole third and scored when the throw snuck past third baseman McClure.

Washington sophomore Taylor Dicks and Fairfield?s Haley Beard had a great pitchers? duel through the first four innings, with Dicks allowing two hits and no runs, while Beard allowed one unearned run on only one hit.

That all changed on a Williams double to start the fifth for the Trojans. Kaylee Watson followed with a single, and a double steal put runners at second and third with nobody out in the inning.

Dicks then battled through an at-bat with Trent that saw the Trojan catcher foul off nine pitches, before the Demon pitcher won it, freezing the sophomore with a perfectly placed pitch on the outside corner for the first out of the inning.

The shutout broke on a Beard groundout to short to score Williams and tie the game at one. Fairfield got three straight hits in the fifth inning and broke the tie on a sacrifice fly to right from Williams.

Down only one, a costly error by the Demons? defense allowed two more runs to come in, before the inning finally ended on a flyout to center from Trent.

Beard earned the win, allowing one unearned run on two hits and striking out three Demon batters. She walked one and was effectively wild, hitting three batters.

Dicks got the loss for the Demons, pitching the complete game, allowing seven hits and no walks and striking out two Trojans.

?We have to change our mindset,? said Shrader. ?Hopefully with the youth that we have, they will eventually grow out of this. We try to make sure that every night we go out and play better, and we?re getting there. Our bats just need to get going.

? We?ll shake out some things we need to work on and improve our baserunning a little bit and some small things defensively.?

Washington will continue their road trip, playing against Mt. Pleasant on Thursday.