A new season is upon the Washington summer teams when they kick off the campaign tonight at home against non-conference opponents. 

The baseball squad will welcome Davenport Central to start up the TJ Rausch era. The 2012 Washington graduate and assistant coach the last several summers takes over the head coaching job after 14-year head man Nathan Miller stepped down last fall. The Demons are coming off of a 15-14 season where they lost a couple big bats to graduation in Reece Mayer and Wilx Witthoft, but return much of their pitching staff including adding back Lucas Kroll and Ethan Patterson. The duo weren’t able to pitch much in 2021 due to injuries, but have a solid track record delivering 2.02 and 2.58 ERAs in 2020. Washington hit .330 as a team last year with Kroll doing a lot of damage recording a .442 average and 26 RBI. The class 4A Blue Devils are coming off of a 13-20 summer including narrowly getting by the Demons 6-5 in last season’s opener. 

The Demon softball team will open against Cardinal. The orange and black finished 20-17 and lose all stater Kellie Dallmeyer, but return a solid core including a youth movement in the pitching circle. As eighth graders, Halle Cuddeback and Bella Salazar carried most of the pitching load and finished with 4.16 and 4.95 ERAs. Ella Greiner was another eighth grader that made some noise with a .359 average and Ava Turner returns for her senior campaign after hitting .302 as a junior. The Comets were 17-14 in 2021 and this is the first meeting between these schools in five years. 

Game times have been moved up due to possible inclement weather with the softball doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m. in Washington and the boys will have a single game at Dick Sojka Memorial Field at 5 p.m. Listen to the baseball contest on FM 106.1 KCII and kciiradio.com starting at 4:30 p.m.