Just after 9 p.m. last night a loud party broke out at Dick Sojka Memorial Field in Washington and the Demon baseball team is to blame, as Brady Knutson’s walk-off hit punched their ticket to a district final with a 3-2 victory over Mount Vernon.

As heard on KCII, the Demons utilized a bullpen day with Luke Turner, Ethan Patterson, Chase McDole, and Kole Hinrichsen all teaming up on the hill with no hurler going more than two frames. The Mustangs got the scoring started in the third scoring on an error, but Washington returned the favor in the fourth when Trevor Quigley scored on a Mustang throwing miscue. Wilx Witthoft gave the Demons a 2-1 advantage in the fifth with an opposite field double that plated Brant Stout. The pesky Mustangs refused to go away, as they had a successful safety squeeze to tie it in the sixth. They tried the same play in the seventh with runners at the corners and one out, but a pop up bunt was caught by a charging McDole and he doubled off the runner at first to end the threat. The momentum was carried into the bottom half when Turner stretched a single into a double to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a balk, and came home for the winning run on a ground ball to left field from Knutson that put the crowd into a frenzy. Knutson tells KCII Sports he wasn’t trying to do too much. “I was just trying to put the ball in play. Luke did a great job going after the first pitch and he kept advancing to put me in that situation.” Stout led a nine-hit offense going 2-for-4. Hinrichsen recorded the final five outs to pick up the win.

Washington improves to 22-8 while the Mustangs end the year 18-15. The Demons advance to face #2 ranked Davenport Assumption in a class 3A district 9 final on Monday. Listen to the broadcast on FM 106.1 KCII starting at 6:30 p.m.