The Washington Demon’s baseball team took the No. 1 Dallas Center Grimes Mustangs to a full nine innings, but the Demons left too many runners on base and ended their season with a 3-2 loss.

Jared Henry was on the mound for the Demons and working magic, throwing four straight 1-2-3 innings against the Mustangs.

Meanwhile the Demon offense could not get anything across the plate, leaving a lone runner on base in the first, two on in the second, after two were picked off, and one runner in the third and fourth.

The Demons opened the door for the Mustangs and they took it, as Tyler Peyton put one over the head of Parker Turner in right and getting a triple to start out the fifth inning. He then would steal home after a walk as no one covered home plate, and the Mustangs were on the board. They put one more up and made the game 2-0.

Washington continued their chances, but left two more on in the fifth and sixth, before finally breaking through with two runs in the seventh to tie up the game. With two down, Jake Redlinger was on second for the Demons, but he wandered too far off the bag and the Mustangs picked up their third pickoff of the game, ending the inning and the Demons momentum.

Both teams went down in short order in the eighth, but the ninth inning was a different story, as Peyton came back up and drilled one into left field for a double to lead off the ninth, and Justin Carlyle hit the go ahead sacrifice RBI for the win, as the Demons went three up, three down in the ninth.

Washington left 10 runners on base, and had lead off base runners in every inning before the extras except for the third.

Head coach Nathan Miller said he thought his kids followed the plan to the tee.

“Our kids did a tremendous job of putting together the game plan. I thought we had great at bats, we were patient at the plate, we swung at strikes, we put nine hits together and strung a few together,” Miller said. “We played outstanding defense, probably our best game of the year overall, we made some terrific plays. I just felt like our kids were battling the whole time, and had a great attitude and great focus, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

The Demons end their season conference and sub-state champions and with a 22-15 record.