Washington uses aggression in nonconference win

It usually turns out to be a successful evening on the diamond when a coach calls for a suicide squeeze, but the batter misses the bunt, causing the catcher to miss the ball and a steal of home occurs.

Washington High School's Chase McDole stole home Friday in the fifth inning to tie the game at 2-2 against the visitors from Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. The Demons went on to add another two runs in the fifth and won the game 4-2.

'We had a squeeze called and the ball got away, so it goes down as a steal,” Washington coach Nathan Miller said. 'We called time and talked about doing it on the second pitch. Sometimes you do it right away, but when (the EBF pitcher) went to the wind up the second time, it was on.”

McDole had reached base on a double to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a single by Kole Hinrichsen. Hinrichsen was thrown out at home when Mitchell Driscoll put the ball in play. Driscoll stole second and scored om Brant Stout's single. Cade Hennigan sacrificed Stout to second and he scored on Luke Turner's single.

'That was a really good team,” Miller said of the Rockets. 'They are very fundamentally sound. Their pitchers attacked the zone with multiple patches. I am really proud of our guys and the way they battle. I thought this was a true team win.”

Lucas Kroll started the gme for the Demons but hit the first batter of the second inning, then walked the next two. Ethan Patterson came in and gave up a single and a walk that resulted in a 2-0 lead for the visitors, but struck out the three outs of the inning, then faced four batters in the third inning and got three outs. Driscoll threw the final four innings without giving up a hit, walking one and striking out three.

'I really like where our pitching staff is,” Miller said. 'We only gave up five hits Thursday in a doubleheader. We gave up two tonight. We pitched really well against Keokuk Monday. I'm excited for the upcoming week. Fort Madison has an improved team and we will have Hennigan on the mound in Game 1 and Paterson on the mound in Game 2.”

The Demons play at Ft. Madison Tuesday and host Ft. Madison Thursday.

'Lucas got his first taste of varsity experience,” Miller said. 'He got his feet wet. He's going to be thrown out there again. He is a guy we are going to count on. We brought Ethan in and he threw 40-some piches, then we brought Driscoll in and he did a fantastic job.”

Down 2-0, Brady Knutson drew a walk to start the second inning and Patterson, who went 2 for 3, followed with a single. A balk advanced the runners, then Trevor Quigley put the ball in play and Knutson was thrown out at home. Patterson scored on another balk for the first Demon run.

Washington had two guys thrown out at home and it is something the they will work on in practice today.

'It is a product of being aggressive, but it is also knowing when is the right time to do that,” Miller said. 'I sent Brady on the first one but the hiccup was that he stopped. I feel like if he hadn't done that, he would've been safe. The third baseman was behind the bag on the pitch so on a slow roller, we are going to take our chances and go. The other one was different and the third baseman was playing in. That third baseman made a phenomenal play on that. Both plays he made were outstanding but they were two completely different situations and neither went our way, but we are going to work on them when we do conditioning on Monday. We have to work on reading the ball off of the bat. Other than those two, our kids run the bases really well. We stole several bases. We were aggressive.”

Miller also noted the breakout inning was the fifth and the Demons were patient and didn't press while trailing.

'We finally got to crack through, then we got it tied up, and as soon as we did you could see the momentum shift in our favor,” Miller said.