The Washington Demons started the high school softball playoffs in stellar fashion by cruising to a 10-0 home victory over Midland last night in the Class 3A Region 8 quarterfinals.

Washington worked out of a jam by stranding back-to-back base hits from Midland to start the game without one scoring, then got a run of their own in the bottom of the first inning.

The Demons stretched the lead with three runs in the second, including a two-run double from junior Lauren Hinrichsen, and that would have been more than enough for junior pitcher Bella Salazar to work with, as she went on to give up only four hits and no walks while also picking up four strikeouts over six shutout innings.

But Washington would get some insurance to boot by scoring three more runs in the fifth and another three in the sixth, ending the game early. Bella Salazar had just the one hit but finished with a team-high three runs batted in, while sophomore Leighton Salazar had a team-high three hits, scored twice and stole three bases.

Hinrichsen added another base hit to her double and scored two runs for the Demons. After the game, head coach Ben Obermann told KCII Sports that it was a picture-perfect start to the postseason, but especially so on the defensive and pitching end.

“We limited free bases,” Obermann said. “[We] only committed one error on the evening, so we weren’t giving up a bunch of free bases, and when you’re attacking the strike zone like Bella was tonight [and] you’re making plays behind her very consistently, they’re not going to have a lot of base runners on.”

With the win, Washington improves to 24-11. The Demons advance to the Class 3A Region 8 semifinals Saturday, where they will host against Central Lee. You can hear Washington playoff softball on KCII tomorrow night starting with pregame coverage at 6:30 on 106.1 FM and streaming on the KCII1 app and KCIIradio.com.