The Washington Demon softball team got off to another great start against No. 4 Carlisle, but could not protect the lead from an offensive onslaught by the Wildcats who won 11-9.
Washington was the home team once against and put the Wildcats down in just four batters in the top of the first, before the Demons came up to bat to flex their muscles in the class 4A semi final.
Pitching for Carlisle was Shyanne Dubois who had a 1.67 ERA entering the game. Washington started off with a double from Maddie Bohr, and the Demons got on the board quickly with a error by the defnese that put Ellingson on first and scored Bohr to put the Demons up 1-0. Washingon then got a single from Kaitlin Buchholz to put two on with Ashley Rausch up to bat, Rausch hit a single that scored Ellingson,a and then as the ball was thrown around the diamond, Rausch went from second and ran over Katie Berg in the process to put the Demons up 3-0 as Buchholz scored. Then Joni Erwin hit a single which led to a two run shot by Grace Redlinger to make the score 5-0, and if that wasn’t enough a single by Kolbi Breard led to a two run shot by Chayse Jaspering, her first of the year and that made the score 7-0 Demons after one with two outs.
Dubois lasted just 2/3 of an inning, giving up seven runs, six earned, off seven hits. In relief came Gabby Schnathorst, and would shut down the Demons.
No one scored until the third, in which Carlisle got all of the momentum. A single by Shayanne Dubois, and then a walk and a hit by pitch led to an inning that the Wildcats put up four runs and made it 7-4. Washington came up and was stuck out in short order. The Wildcats did nothing in the fourth, but made it 7-6 in the fifth with a RBI double by Payton Mercer and a sacrifice fly scored her.
In the sixth everything changed, as with bases loaded, Mercer came up to bat again and hit a two out Grand Slam home run to make the score 10-7, and Washington never saw the lead again. They pushed back making it a one run game in their half of the sixth with a double by Kolbi Breard, a single by Bohr and a two RBI double by Kaitlin Buchholz that tied the school record for most hits in a single season to make it 10-9, but Carlisle put one more on the board and turned a 4-6 double play to put it out of reach.
Rausch went all seven for Washington, gave up 11 runs, all earned, nine hits and hit two batters, while Schnathorst gave up two earned runs on six hits and struck out seven. Demon head coach Angie Shrader said it hurts now, but her team still played well in the loss.
“It’s hard to say that we scored too many runs too early, but that was probably our downfall tonight, jumping out to a 7-0 lead and knocking that pitcher as early as we did, then the second girl came in and we went two innings that we didn’t have a base runner, and we probably had more strikeouts tonight then we had in the whole month of July, and that is the part that is frustrating, because we were swinging at things that we know how to hit, and it just hurts, it hurts a lot, but it we look back on things, in reality, we are playing for a third place finish tomorrow.”
Washington plays Indianola for third place today with pregame at 3 and first pitch at 3:30. Tune into AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com under radio plus to hear this game.