The Southeast Conference opener was a tough day at the office for the Washington baseball team last night when they were handled in a pair of games against two-time defending SEC Champion Burlington. 

As heard on KCII, game one was a defensive nightmare for the home Demons with five errors and 16 free passes that led to an 18-8 Grayhound win in six innings. Washington cut an 8-1 deficit to 8-5 in the fourth with four tallies despite not recording a hit in the frame. Burlington (3-3, 2-0) answered back with a pair of five run frames to take control of the game and forced the Demons to use four pitchers. Kole Williams was a bright spot for a seven hit offense going 2-for-4 with two RBI and Lucas Kroll also had a pair of hits. Kroll suffered the loss on the hill. 

Trailing 4-0 in the third inning of the nightcap, the Grayhounds sent 11 batters to the plate and put up eight runs with Washington never being able to stop the bleeding in a 20-3 loss after five. Four more errors hurt Demon pitchers with Ethan Patterson, Avery Six, and Austin Rebling seeing time on the hill. The offense scattered three hits with Luke Beenblossom having a double. Head Coach TJ Rausch tells KCII Sports his team has to learn from the night. “Burlington is a good team that sits on off speed pitches and can really rip it, but our defense didn’t help us. We were not ready to go today and that falls on my shoulders. Tonight is over, it wasn’t fun, but it doesn’t have to define a season. We need to bounce back tomorrow.”

The Demons are now 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the SEC. They hope to bounce back tonight against Mount Pleasant (2-3).