With 53 combined hits, 27 walks, and only one half inning that went down in order, a long evening of baseball was inevitable. What started out as a Thursday night doubleheader, turned into a Friday morning special when Washington made the long haul to Keokuk and won a pair of three hour games for the Southeast Conference sweep.
The orange and black let a pair of five run leads slip in game one, but extended an 11-10 advantage to 17-10 in the final inning to secure the win. All nine Demon batters recorded a hit and RBI led by Lucas Kroll going 4-for-5 with two RBI and Ethan Patterson went 4-for-6 with one run knocked in. Ethan Zieglowsky recorded the final six outs to manage the save while Kole Williams was the winning pitcher.
Game two followed a similar script with a 5-0 Demon lead wiped out by six straight runs for Keokuk (1-9, 1-5). Washington answered back with a six run third inning to take a lead they never relinquished and ended up taking the nightcap by a 16-9 score. Zieglowsky once again came on in relief and threw the final four innings to pick up his second save while Jacob Miller was credited with the win. Zieglowsky had a rare five-hit game at the dish going 5-for-6 with two RBI and Head Coach Nathan Miller called the junior a true gamer. “He is a warrior. When he wasn’t pitching he was catching on this hot night. If there is a guy that we are going to push a little bit it is him because his arm is in great shape. It was a true team performance and we had so many guys do really good things. We need to finish the week strong on Friday.” Kroll continued to stay hot in the night cap with four more hits going 4-for-6 with three RBI. Washington had 37 hits in the 14 innings of play and beat Keokuk for the 13th and 14th straight time.
The Demons improve to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in SEC play. They turn around and travel to West Branch tonight. Listen to the single game once again on FM 106.1 KCII with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. The Washington softball team split the doubleheader against the Chiefs by winning game one 15-6 and dropping the finale 12-8. They are now 7-10 and 4-2 in the league.