It is opening day for the boys and girls of summer at Washington High School and KCII will bring you live play-by-play coverage of the softball team’s season opener.  

The softball squad will face off with the Bears of West Branch at home for a single game. The Demons are coming off of a 10-18 season in a shortened 2020 campaign, but ended the year strong with a regional final berth. They lost four players to graduation, but return their leading hitter in Kellie Dallmeyer. The senior recorded a .396 batting average and knocked in 24 runs last summer. Cara Linnenkamp returns in the circle after a 4.75 ERA last year and a Southeast Conference best 1.29 ERA in her sophomore season. West Branch was 7-9 out of the River Valley Conference and Nicki Henson is a dangerous slap hitter with a .500 batting average. Demon Head Coach Ben Obermann tells KCII Sports he wants to see no mental mistakes on opening night. “I want to see if we are doing things the right way. Are we rotating correctly on our bunt coverages, are we throwing through the cut, are we talking, do we have solid approaches at the plate? Physical mistakes are going to happen, but as long as the mental processing of situations is how we want it, we will be pleased.”

The baseball team will open the season on the road to Brady Street at Davenport Central. Washington was 9-8 last year and graduated a senior class of seven. All-Conference player Reece Mayer is back for his senior summer and looks to build off of a .377 BA with 17 RBI. Lucas Kroll returns on the mound with a 2.02 ERA in 28 innings of work as a sophomore. The Blue Devils were 1-18 in class 4A and return their top hitter in Kieran O’Brien with a .333 BA. 

Listen to the softball game on FM 106.1 KCII starting at 6:30 p.m. and first pitch of the season will be at 7 p.m. from Washington High School.