The Southeast Conference season started with a split for the Washington baseball team on Thursday when they entertained Fort Madison for a twin bill at Dick Sojka Memorial Field.

Washington was playing catch up all of game one and didn’t have enough in a 7-4 defeat. A pair of hits from Ethan Zieglowsky and Kole Williams initially tied the game at 2-2 in the first, but the Bloodhounds (4-2) answered with a pair of runs in the third to take a lead they never relinquished. Reece Mayer went 3-for-4 to lead an offense with nine hits. Lucas Kroll started and tossed three innings giving up four runs on four knocks while Zieglowsky threw the remaining four frames of three run ball and two hits allowed.  

The nightcap was a seesaw battle that involved late magic for a 4-3 Demon victory. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, junior Matt Wolf was the offensive hero with a bases loaded single to left field to plate a couple that proved to be the game winner. After Zeke Slagel tossed four plus innings giving up three runs on five hits, Williams came in and recorded the final nine outs to pick up the win. The junior got out of a first and third with one out jam in the seventh to preserve the split. He did not allow an earned run and gave up only two hits in the three innings of work. Head Coach Nathan Miller loved the pitching performance from the duo. “It started with Zeke and he gave us a solid four innings. He threw 20 pitches last night so he was on a pitch count. Then we had Kole come in and he provided a confident presence on the mound. He filled the zone up and was huge for us.” Wilx Witthoft went 2-for-3 at the dish. 

Washington moves to 3-2 overall, 1-1 in the SEC, and travel to Burlington on Monday.