The new season starts tonight for the Washington baseball team when they seek an upset against No. 2 Davenport Assumption in a class 3A first round substate game being played at North Scott High School. 

The Demons finished the regular season 6-20 and fell to Pella 9-4 in a shortened game on Tuesday. They have a .233 batting average as a team and are led by senior Kole Williams with a .370 BA and 30 RBI. The pitching staff has a collective 6.12 ERA with Isaac Vetter doing a bulk of the work managing a 3.97 mark in 30 innings. The tradition-rich Knights come in with a 27-6 record and seek their fourth trip to state in the last six years.  They have had success in a lot of areas registering a .362 average and a 2.87 ERA. John Argo is their top hitter with a .444 BA and Tyler Welch has a 1.50 ERA in 37 innings on the hill. These two programs last met in the second round of the 2019 playoffs where the Knights squeaked out a 2-1 pitcher’s duel win.

Demon Head Coach TJ Rausch tells KCII Sports his team has nothing to lose. “The beauty of games like this is there is zero pressure on us. We have absolutely nothing to lose. I told the guys just go out and play and let the chips fall where they may. We just need to enjoy the game and play Demon baseball.”

These two squads have an early game in Eldridge beginning at 5 p.m. Listen to the live play-by-play on AM 1380 FM 102.5 FM 106.1 KCII and kciiradio.com starting at 4:30 p.m.