The Washington Demons defended their home field Friday night with an exciting 5-4 win over No. 7 in class 2A Mid-Prairie at Dick Sojka Memorial Field. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, Mid-Prairie built an early 2-0 lead. The Hawks scored one in the first when Keegan Gingerich singled to drive in Aidan Rath, then Kayden Reinier came home on a Demon defensive miscue in the third to make it 2-0. The Demons took their first lead in the third inning when they strung together five hits to score three against Golden Hawk starter Collin Miller. Hits in the inning came from Ethan Zieglowsky, Kole Williams, Lucas Kroll, Wilx Witthoft and Jacob Miller with runs for James Strabala, Williams and Miller and RBI for Williams, Kroll and Witthoft. Mid-Prairie would answer in the top of the fourth with Reinier driving in Will Cavanagh to tie the game again at three. Washington would reclaim the lead in the bottom half with Miller walking and coming around. Mid-Prairie would again tie the game, this time in the fifth when Miller smacked a single to score Karson Grout. Washington got the game winner in the sixth when Matt Wolf reached on an error. Austin Rebling came in to run for him, made it to third with a stolen base and ultimately scored on Miller’s contact. In the final frame, Zieglowky and Patterson teamed up on a caught stealing to help Williams nail it down for the Demons. After the game, Washington head coach Nathan Miller talked about the importance of the small moments and his team’s top performers. “Our pitchers have done a great job of filling the zone up. That was an Achilles heel for us early in the season. Travis Leyden came out for his first start of the year and had his change-up working tonight. We hope that our guys are making adjustments during the course of the night. If you aren’t making adjustments during the game, you are going to come off the field afterward with a not good feeling about how things went. The little things in the game are so important. We had a heads up play in the middle of the game from Cole Williams stealing third, James Strabala tagging up on the foul ball to the catcher, Austin Rebling stealing third and then Jacob Miller making contact to drive him in.

Washington finished with five runs on seven hits, led by Ethan Patterson’s two hit night, two runs from Jacob Miller and single RBI for Kole Williams, Lucas Kroll, Wilx Witthoft and Miller. Williams got the win in relief on the mound, going two and two thirds innings and shutting out Mid-Prairie on two walks and two strikeouts. For the Golden Hawks they completed the night with four runs on four hits. Kayden Reinier had two singles and a run scored. He, Keegan Gingerich and Collin Miller each drove in one. Collin Miller took the loss on the mound, working five and a third innings, giving up five runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Washington improves to 14-9 with the win, Mid-Prairie is 16-6.