Washington sweeps past Keokuk

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

Keokuk and Washington shared the Southeast Conference softball title last season.

Washington finished last year 17-22, but is 19-10 now. Keokuk is 1-23 after losing 12-2 in five innings and 9-4 Monday in Washington.

'We have a lot of competition with Keokuk because of tying them for the title last year,” Demon sophomore centerfielder Kinsey Duwa said. 'I thought we did a good job playing hard tonight.”

While the Demons took both games, they were different than the 12-0 and 15-0 victories in Keokuk earlier this season.

'We came into the game knowing that we had beat them pretty bad the first times, so we knew it was important to play our game and keep our composure,” Duwa said. 'I thought we finished the games strong.”

'Keokuk is much improved from the first time we saw them,” Washington head coach Ben Obermann said. 'We did enough to come away with two wins.”

The Demons had a 3-0 lead after two innings in the opener then plated four runs in the third and five in the fifth to end the game.

Kellie Dallmeyer was 3 for 4, Kinsey duwa was 2 for with a double, Kaitlyn Mitchell and Haylee Wilson were both 2 for 2.

Molly Sparks threw all five innings with three hits, no walks and three strikeouts for the win.

In the second game, Alexa Mitchell ran into trouble in the circle in the third inning and gave up three runs, but Cara Linnenkamp came in to finish the game. Linnekamp gat the three outs in the seventh inning on five pitches. her only run was unearned.

'Alexa is a little frustrated with her control right now,” Obermann said. 'It will come back. She's a hard worker. Cara came in and did a nice job by throwing strikes for us. That's what we needed. You can't give teams free bases with walks, hits or errors.”

'All three of our pitchers are awesome,” Duwa said. 'Anyone of them on any given night will bring it for us. I'm not worried as long as we play great defense behind them.”

The Demons did commit three errors in the second game and one in the first, but have improved in that department.

'Obs (head coach Obermann) and (assistant coach) Lauren (Obermann) switched in practice,” Duwa said. 'Lauren used to have infield and Obs had outfield but they traded and Obs kind of beat them up a little bit so they are finally getting into shape. I think we got it figured out.”

Duwa was 2 for 4 in the second game, Sparks was 2 for 3, Alexa Mitchell was 3 for 3 and RyLee Fishback was 2 for 3.

'It's not going to show in the box score, but Anna Venenga hit the ball hard,” Head Coach Obermann said. 'Kellie had some good cuts. Haylee Wilson is swinging it well. The Mitchell twins had some big hits. One through nine just did great. RyLee came through in the second game. Altogether, we had some quality at bats. We were putting the ball in play hard. That's all you can ask for.”

Washington is 9-5 in the SEC and plays at No. 7 (Class 2A) Iowa City Regina today.

The Demons tied for the title last season with a 10-6 SEC record. Two games at No. 13 (Class 4A) Mt. Pleasant remain on the league schedule. Fairfield is 11-1 SEC and the Panthers are 10-2.