The Washington softball team will host No. 1 in 3A West Burlington-Notre Dame tonight.

This will be the Demons last home game of the season, as they will finish up the regular and conference season on the road next week in Ft. Madison.

Washington is 25-9 this year and is hitting .355 as a team. Kaitlin Buchholz remains the top bat for Washington with a .474 average and 44 RBI’s with four home runs, while Ashley Rausch is right behind with a .415 average, 42 RBI’s and three homers.

Rausch will probably get the nod in the circle tonight, she has a 2.08 ERA with 89 strikeouts and opponents are hitting .209 off of her. In her last four starts she is 3-1, with 20 K’s, eight walks and a .88 ERA.

West Burlington- Notre Dame is 28-5 this season and is hitting .408. They are 1-3 in their last four, losing to Central Clinton, West Liberty and Ft. Madison. They are led at the plate by the .604 average of Riley Hale and her 39 RBI’s and six home runs, followed by the .514 average of Courtney Coffin with 18 RBI’s. Five players including those two have averages over .440.

On the pitching staff it’s Alex Yacko with a 20-3 record and a 1.27 ERA with 153 K’s on the year.

Demon head coach Angie Shrader said tonight’s game is one her team wants to win, but if they play their best she can’t ask for any more.

“Win or loss, as long as we can go into this game knowing that we can play with anybody and we play our best game, if we get beat by them, then they are a good ball club, they are No. 1 in 3A, they only have three or four losses on the season, so if we’re playing our best and they happen to beat us so be it, as long as we’re showing that we are giving our best effort,” Shrader said. “I think having that game that we played with them earlier in the season, and it was a very close ball game [helps]. I think our girls are ready to come in and play this game.”

Washington beat West Burlington-Notre Dame earlier in the year 7-6. Tonight’s game is at Washington and starts at 7, and you can hear it right here on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com under radio plus with pregame at 6:30 and first pitch at 7, the one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.