Cracking the elusive code against No. 13 in 4A Fairfield will have to wait another summer for the Washington softball team when they suffered a heartbreaking loss in the nightcap last night and dropped a pair of games to their Southeast Conference rival. 

As heard on KCII, game one saw both pitcher’s give their team a chance with the Trojans leading 3-1 heading into the seventh and a couple late runs led to a 5-1 victory. Coty Engle showed her dominance in the circle tossing a complete game two hitter for the Trojans with the only run given up coming on an error that plated Ava Turner in the first. Bella Salazar threw seven frames surrendering five runs on seven hits. Leighton Salazar and Kendall Hinrichsen had singles for the orange and black.

Game two went as scripted for Washington for 6 2/3 innings, but the final out slipped away in an 8-7 loss. The Demons plated four in the first in large part by RBI knocks from Bella Salazar and Alyvia Anderson. The score was 5-0 after two and 7-4 heading into the seventh. Down to the final out, the Demons had a couple miscues defensively that opened the door for the dangerous Trojan bats and they responded with three straight singles to take a lead they wouldn’t give up. This is the second time this season where the Trojans came back from three down in the last inning to down the Demons. Halle Cuddeback threw 6 2/3 innings in the loss. Bella Salazar led a four hit offense going 2-for-3 with two RBI. 

Head Coach Ben Obermann knows his team was in position for a marquee win. “We were doing a lot of the right things it just didn’t happen for us. We are kind of snake bit with Fairfield. Against good teams, you can’t give a veteran team like that extra outs and it is unfortunate, but that doesn’t take away from us doing a lot of great things tonight.”

Fairfield (23-8, 12-4) has now won 15 of the last 16 in the series. Washington drops to 11-22 overall and 7-11 in conference play.