The Washington Demons came up short in both of their opening conference games of the baseball season last night in Mount Pleasant. Washington fell behind 3-0 after the first three innings in Game One and would not recover, even as a base hit from junior Luke Schiebel would push across a run in the sixth in a 4-1 loss.

Despite the defeat, senior Luke Beenblossom had a solid starting pitching effort, allowing three earned runs on eight hits in six innings of work and compiling five strikeouts.

Game Two began with a bang for the Demons, scoring three runs on three hits in the first frame. Washington stretched their lead to 8-1 through three-and-a-half innings and still had a 12-5 lead going into the seventh and final inning.

But Mount Pleasant found a way to rally, tying the game with a seven-run seventh. After the Demons could not push a run across in extra innings, a lead-off single by the Panthers in the bottom of the eighth came around to score for a walk-off, 13-12 victory.

Three different players had three-hit games for Washington, including Kael Williams, who also scored four runs. Fellow sophomore Caden Greiner finished with three runs batted in to go with three hits, while senior Luke Beenblossom scored twice and had one of his three knocks be a two-run double.

Junior Mason Morgan had two hits and scored twice for the Demons, while senior Caleb Zieglowsky finished with a pair of hits and one RBI. Washington starts Southeast Conference play without a win and is 1-4 overall. The Demons will look for a bounce-back when they host the series finale against Mount Pleasant tomorrow evening.