The season is again on the line tonight for Washington Demon softball – but, so too is a spot in a championship game as Washington hosts Central Lee in the Class 3A Region 8 semifinals that you can hear on KCII.
Washington’s 10-0 victory over Midland on Monday means the Demons are now 24-11, tied with last year’s team for the most wins in a single season for the program since their last trip to the state tournament 11 years ago.
Washington’s electric lineup continues to produce at a high level. Sophomore Leighton Salazar picked up three more hits Monday in the lead-off spot and has a .525 batting average and team highs of 54 runs scored and 35 stolen bases, chasing multiple single-season school records.
Junior Ella Greiner is hitting .447 with six doubles, two home runs, 31 runs scored and 28 runs batted in, while Bella Salazar has come up with 37 RBI to go with a .357 average and fellow junior Alyvia Anderson is batting .376 with nine doubles, three homers and a team-high 41 runs driven in.
But it can’t just be the Demons’ potent lineup that has to do well in the playoffs. Head coach Ben Obermann tells KCII Sports that they need to sharp in every aspect of the game now that they’re deeper into the postseason.
“When you play really good teams, like we did that last stretch of the [regular] season,” Obermann says, “they expose your weaknesses and show what you need to work on. We knew we had to work on fielding bunts [and] being a little quicker defensively, so we shored up some things defensively in the last couple practices of the year. The further you go in this regional tournament, the tougher teams are going to get [and] the better they’re going to be. We’re going to see a good team on Saturday.”
Washington will be taking on a Central Lee team has bashed the ball on their way to a 24-10 record. Senior Shanna Buford and sophomore Kenna Sandoval have the two highest slugging percentages in the state in Class 3A and have combined for 37 doubles, 15 home runs and 91 RBI.
The Hawks have seven different players who have scored at least 20 runs this season and boast not only the best team batting average in Class 3A but are top 10 in the state in virtually every offensive category, yet the Demons cruised to a 12-2 victory in five innings when the two teams met on June 18th.
Washington won a playoff meeting with Central Lee last season 10-1 and has won three straight overall in the series. The Demons look for their first trip toa regional final since 2020, and you can catch all the action on 106.1 FM KCII and streaming on KCIIradio.com and the KCII1 app, starting with the Roder Epoxy Pregame Show this evening at 6:30.