Washington drops game to No. 2 Durant

DURANT - Washington's scheduled doubleheader with Class 2A's No. 2 Durant Tuesday was shortened to a game because of weather and the Demons were on the short end of a 1-0 decision.

'Overall, there are a lot of positives to take away from tonight,” WHS coach Ben Obermann said. 'Durant is a state championship contender. I thought our pitching and defense was outstanding.”

Molly Sparks gave the Demons a chance for victory with just six hits allowed with no walks and four strikeouts.

'Sparks was excellent in the circle, keeping a good and experienced lineup off balance all night,” Obermann said. 'Our defense played great behind her. Durant's pitcher is a Division I recruit, and while we didn't have a lot of success in the box score offensively, I thought we had good approaches at the plate and we battled.”

The Demons had three hits in the game against Durant senior Kamryn Meyer and those were by Kellie Dallmeyer, Kaitlyn Mitchell and Haylee Wilson.

'We had the tying run and go-ahead run on base with two outs in the seventh, so I was pleased with how we competed and put ourselves in a situation to possibly take the lead late and win the game,” Obermann said. 'Our girls are fearless, and sometimes you just get beat, which was the case tonight. A game like this is perfect this time of year. We won't see a better pitcher than Meyer with what she can feature, and this should give our girls a lot of confidence that we can play with anyone in the state. While we're not content with a loss, our girls should be proud of the way we played, and if we battle like that the rest of the season, we're going to like the result.”

Durant has a 26-6 record.

Washington is 21-12 and hosts West Burlington (20-10) today.