The Washington Demon softball team took a sweep last night on the road against conference rival Mount Pleasant, falling by scores of 9-8 and 10-5.

The Demons got out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning of game one, and they extended that lead to 4-0 in the second.  The Panthers struck back for a couple of runs in their half of the second and score another run in the third, cutting the score to 4-3.  The Demons proceeded to score two in the fourth and two more in the seventh, going into the final half-inning with a four-run lead.

Two outs were recorded in the bottom of the seventh with two runners on.  Mount Pleasant’s Ava Lowery came to the plate and popped up to second base, but the ball was dropped, extending the inning and loading the bases.  Following that, Molly Sparks walked three straight batters, all with the bases loaded, to cut the deficit to one.  Panthers’ catcher Lyndi Vantiger then came up and slapped a single to center field, sealing the victory 9-8.

The Demons also got out to a quick 2-0 in the top of the first inning of game two, but the Panthers tied it up in the bottom half and took the lead 3-2 in inning number two.  The Demons would take a 5-4 lead in the top of the fourth, but would never score again as the Panthers racked up the runs and took a 10-5 victory.

Morgan Brinning was outstanding in the double-header, reaching base in eight of her nine plate appearances throughout the two games and scored five runs.  Haylee Wilson also had a great performance in game one, going 3-4 with 3 RBI.  Despite individual successes at the plate, though, head coach Ben Obermann says offense isn’t the problem.

“We’ve been awesome offensively all year.  We really have.  Offensively is not the issue whatsoever.  I mean, we scored thirteen runs in a double-header,” Obermann said.

“First game, right out of the gates, putting runs up on the board, extending the lead.  We had an 8-4 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, and we kind of collapsed.  That’s all that happened.  We beat ourselves that game.  You have to give credit to Mount Pleasant a little bit for battling through it, but when it comes down to it we feel like we let two get away from us tonight.  That’s the disappointing part.”

This drops the Demons’ record to 6-14 on the season.  They’ll look to bounce back today when they head to Eldridge for another couple of road games, facing off against Linn Marr and North Scott.