The Washington Demon softball team starts the season off tonight with Columbus Junction.

The Demons bring back eight of the nine starters from last years fourth place state run, breaking a lot of school records along the way.

Last year Washington went 32-10, which was possible by playing off returning starting pitcher Ashley Rausch and her 20-6 record, 1.83 ERA and 115 strikeouts. On offense, Washington brings back four of the top run producers on the team, the top three batting averages, but lose their top RBI, with the graduation of Lauren Vittetoe, but, it shouldn’t be a problem since they bring back everyone else in the lineup.

As for Columbus Junction, they went 15-20 last year, they bring back their best bat in Megan Pretz, but lose four of the top six to graduation. Pretz will take the circle for the majority of the games again this year, after last years 14-12, 2.91 ERA and 130 strike outs performance as a junior.

Demon head coach Angie Shrader said that everyone may not be playing the same spot this year, but the familiarity of the team will overrule any position changes.

“Well I think the confidence is that everybody knows the personal of the people that are around them, they know this person’s range as opposed to this person’s range, so I think that makes them more comfortable because a lot of them have been playing together for so long, a lot of them started in 10 or 12 under softball, and they now worked together for this long and not necessarily that everyone has the same spots already, but at least the same personnel is there that we can work with and they know what is expected of them, and they obviously know what the goal is and what the reward is if you can make it that point,” Shrader said.

Columbus and Washington play tonight at Columbus at 7:30 tonight, and you can hear this game right here on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com with pregame at 7 and first pitch at 7:30. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.