Perhaps the most anticipated Washington Demon softball season in a decade gets underway tonight when Washington travels to Columbus in a game you can hear on KCII.
The Demons pulled off an incredible turnaround in 2023, going from a losing record to 24 wins, their most victories since 2013, and very nearly winning a Southeast Conference championship. Behind the eight highest-scoring lineup in the state, Washington won 10 of its first 14 games and then did the same over the final 14.
Now, with only one member of last year’s roster gone, it’s not hard to see why the Demons were preseason ranked seventh in Class 3A by the Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union.
Washington features a terrific trio at the top of the batting order, starting with sophomore Leighton Salazar. In addition to setting school records last season, Salazar became one of the state’s premier lead-off hitters, as her .550 batting average, 13 doubles, 72 total hits and 58 runs scored were all top 10 in the state.
Junior Ella Greiner turned into an elite hitter in her own right last season, batting .475 with eight doubles, five home runs, a team-high 39 runs batted in and another 40 scored to join Salazar as an all-state selection.
Freshman Colbie Greiner adds even more thump to the lineup, coming up with 10 doubles and five homers in her debut season and hitting .347 with 37 RBI.
Mix in at least 23 hits each from senior Emery Walton and juniors Bella Salazar and Lauren and Kendall Hinrichsen, and you have a recipe for offensive success. But head coach Ben Obermann tells KCII Sports that his team faces a new challenge in 2024: being the hunted instead of the hunters.
“Last season was an outstanding season,” Obermann says. “We were still a young group [and] we might have surprised some people last year [and] surprised other teams, so we talked with our leadership council in the off-season, knowing [that] we’re not going to surprise people this year. There’s going to be expectations, so this off-season we really talked about ‘how do we embrace expectations?'”
Bella Salazar will be leading the pitching staff after she won 14 games and had a 3.53 earned-run average in 2023, with Colbie Greiner and junior Halle Cuddeback bringing back plenty of experience in the circle as well.
Washington will be taking on a Columbus team that they beat 10-6 last season and have won 10 straight against. You can catch the season debut of Demon softball this evening on 106.1 FM KCII and streaming on KCIIradio.com and the KCII app, starting with the Roder Epoxy Pregame Show at 7.