The Demon softball team stayed at No. 9 in the rankings, and will look to move back up the latter with a couple of games against Mt. Pleasant tonight.
Washington is 4-2 and is hitting .325 as a team, which is a little off from the .394 average as a team at the end of last year, and head coach Angie Shrader knows that the bats have to get better.
“I think our bats are just little slow right now, we’re thinking too much at the plate and we’re putting too much thought into what we want to accomplish at the plate rather than just swinging, and I think the kids are starting to realize that they are trying to do too much at the plate, and they know that their doing it, it’s just a matter getting them back to their confidence, and knowing that they can hit those doubles and triples,” Shrader said. “We’re not hitting poorly, we’re just not to what we’ve been used to at the end of last season and what the kids think they’re capable of, and it is just a matter of turning down the thinking process a little bit, and going up to the plate and having some fun and swinging at good pitches.”
The best bat in the lineup for the Demons is Sammy Ellingson, hitting .450 and Stephanie Fishback who is hitting .409 with seven RBI’s.
On the pitching side of things, Washington has a combined ERA of 1.47 and holding opponents to hitting .190, but has 21 strikeouts to 19 walks. Ashley Rausch is 2-2 with a 2.13 ERA 13 K’s with 13 walks and opponents are hitting .200, while Maddie Bohr has been the shutdown pitcher this year, with a .47 ERA, eight K’s to six walks and opponents are hitting .172.
On the Panthers side of things they are 4-4 and hitting .306 as a team with their best bat being Sarah Moffett hitting a .444 average, behind her is Morgan Frasie with a .286 average, but seven RBI’s.
Pitching on the Panthers is led by Jena Stukerjurgen with a 1-3 record and a 4.96 ERA, and Sammi Goble with a 2-0 record, 1.17 ERA and 14 strikeouts.
Tonight’s game will be played at Washington with the first game of the double header starting at 5:30.