With the Washington Demon softball team, it doesn’t seem to be a matter of if there is going to be a big inning, but when. The Demons fell behind early, but got their big inning and rode that to a 10-7 regional quarterfinal win over visiting Grinnell Thursday at the Washington softball complex. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, the Tigers roared early, scoring four times in the top of the first on a pair of hits and a Washington error. Down 4-0, the Demons scratched across one in the bottom half when Kaitlyn Mitchell reached on a hit by pitch and came home on a Grinnell error. The Tigers extended their lead to 7-1 with a single tally in the second and a pair in the third. Going to the fifth, Washington had just one run and one hit, having been stymied by Tiger starter Elle Griffe and the rest of the Grinnell defense, but in that fifth inning Washington exploded.

In a half inning that took nearly a half hour, Washington sent 13 hitters to the plate, cranked out eight runs on six hits, chased Griffe from the game and erased the entire deficit, taking a 9-7 lead by the end of the frame. Key at bats included Kaitlyn Mitchell going 13 pitches deep with Griffe before grinding out an RBI single, Alexa Mitchell with an RBI single and RyLee Fishback belting her third homer in the last week, a three run job, that put Washington up for good. Fishback talked after the game about the at-bat. “I was just looking to make contact. As long as I get on base I’ll be fine. I didn’t realize it had gone out. I thought it went straight up. As I rounded first I realized it had gone out. I’m very excited, very proud.”

With the lead and Cara Linnenkamp in the circle, the Demons slammed the door on the Tigers in the final two innings, including sitting down the Tigers in order in the seventh to secure the win. After the game, Demon head coach Ben Obermann spoke about the victory. “We were having good approaches. It was good to answer back with that run in the bottom of the first innings. We saw a lot of pitches. Stretched out some innings. Once we got to the fifth, we took advantage of some of their defensive miscues and made it hurt. Kaitlyn Mitchell had a 10 plus pitch at bat and came up with a single and we kept it going. Hitting is contagious. We have had some big innings this year. I knew it was going to come, they just made me wait a little longer for it than I would like. Give our kids credit, we fought. Get down 7-1 it would have been easy to phone it in.”

Fishback drove in three to lead the Washington offense. Halle Leyden, Kellie Dallmeyer and Alexa Mitchell each had two hits. Linnencamp got the win going all seven innings, giving up seven runs, three of them earned, walked two and struck out three. With the win, the Demons are now 9-17 on the year and travel to Clear Creek Amana Saturday to meet the Clippers in the regional semifinals.