The No.10 Demon Softball team makes the turn in the conference to face Ft. Madison for the second time.

The Demons defeated the Bloodhounds 10-6 and 13-1 in one of the first games of the year, but head coach Angie Shrader doesn’t want to take any chances with history.

“We have to go down there and play, and it is a matter of if the girls want this conference championship they can’t go down to Ft. Madison and let them take one from us,” Shrader said. “We have to make sure that we are ready to play and we’re not over confident or cocky, and that the players playing at this point go down there and win two ball games and not give them the opportunity to come back and take one from us.”

The Bloodhounds are hitting just .237 with 41 runs in 15 games. Their pitching staff has an ERA of 9.61 and opponents are hitting .388.

The Demons had a warm up to this game, beating West Branch last night 11-1. Ashley Rausch pitched five innings gave up three hits and one run earned.

Grace Redlinger was also back in the lineup playing short and going 2-2 at the plate with a run and RBI, but nothing was better on the stat sheet than Joni Erwin’s grand slam home run in the fifth.

Shrader says her team just keeps hitting, and there really isn’t much more to say.

“Everything was clicking, we were hitting the ball, even if it was a ground ball, we were hitting it hard enough that they couldn’t make the play, they either made an error or couldn’t come up with the ball because of how aggressive our kids were at the plate,” Shrader said.

The Demons are hitting .448 as a team, fifth best in the state out of all the classes, and sixth in on base percentage with a .492.

The Demons are 14-2 and have won seven games by nine or more runs, and have won nine in a row.

They will travel to Ft. Madison tonight.