After three postponements, the Washington Demon baseball team finally played their first-round playoff game on Saturday afternoon, losing 3-1 in eight innings to Iowa City Liberty.

The two teams had met before, playing in what ended up being a five-and-a-half-hour double-header, which Washington swept.  One of those two games went to extra innings.  They would do it again.

The Lightning struck first, scoring one run via a passed ball in the top of the second inning.  No scoring would happen for Washington until the fourth inning when Landon Hinkley drove Luke Turner in from third on a sacrifice fly to tie it up.  The Lightning struck again with two runs in the eighth to retake the lead.  Luke Turner led off the  Demons’ half of the eighth with a single, but the rest were set down in order to end the game and the season.

It was a pitchers’ duel the whole way.  Liberty pitchers Nolan Frey and Keian Secrist gave up a combined three hits, two to Turner and one to Hinkley, and struck out ten.  Kole Hinrichsen got the start on the mound for Washington, giving up one run on two hits while striking out seven in four innings of work.  Chase McDole took the loss, going 3.1 innings pitched and giving up two runs on no hits in the eighth.

With the loss, Washington ends their season with an overall record of 21-12.  They say goodbye to Jacob Hall, Landon Hinkley, Kiowa Keith and Erik Murphy, and bring back the other 13 players.