The Demon softball team hasn’t had the start to their season that they wanted, falling to 2-5 after a loss over the weekend to Pella 6-0.

The Demons come home tonight to host Keokuk for a conference double header and hope to end their skid. At the plate, Washington is led by Grace Redlinger with a .429 average, a homerun and four doubles. Rausch and Fishback come in as the second leading batters with .400 averages. Pitching wise, Rausch has had a fantastic start to her season, with a 1.58 ERA, 37 strikeouts and opponents hit just .143 off of her.

For Keokuk, they come into the game 7-5. Beating Burlington 20-8, Pella 7-2, and losing to Bettendorf by just one run. The young Chiefs team has no standout hitter at the plate as Kirby Sanders leads the way with a .364 average, one homer and three doubles. Outside of her, all the averages are below .300. In the circle, Taylor Lemon gets the most work with a 6-5 record, she has a 2.13 ERA, 38 strikeouts and opponents hit .270 off of her.

Outside of the Pella game, the Demons have lost games from just one bad inning of play. Demon head softball coach Angie Shrader addressed that after the Fairfield games last week.

“Take one bad inning away and we’re undefeated on the season, and it is not necessarily a pitching fault, yeah they had a few good hits, but when we combine the hits with a couple of silly mistakes and errors, that is what happens in that big inning. We let them score three, four runs, or whatever it is, and that is the part that is frustrating. Yes we have a young team, and we’re learning and we’re still trying to figure out our lineup, but it is frustrating to be that close and not be able to close out and get the win,” Shrader said.

Tonight’s games are at Washington with a 5:30 start, and you can hear it right here with pregame of game one at 5 and first pitch at 5:30 with the stare of game two to follow on AM and FM KCII. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII.