Two long-time Washington County softball rivals meet again tonight when the Washington Demons host the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks on KCII. Washington comes in with a record of 23-8 and just wrapped up their first outright conference championship in over a decade.

Behind two-time all-state shortstop Leighton Salazar, who has team highs of a .532 batting average, 58 total hits, 47 runs scored and 44 stolen bases, the Demons are ranked ninth in the state in Class 3A.

Senior Ella Greiner is also swinging the bat well with a .473 average, seven doubles, two home runs and 33 runs batted in, while sophomore Colbie Greiner is hitting almost .390 to go with nine doubles, four homers and a team-high 36 RBI. Head coach Ben Obermann tells KCII Sports his team possesses a dangerous lineup.

“Offensively, we’ve been locked in [and] we’ve been swinging it well,” Obermann says. “Even our outs are loud, and what we’re going to see come postseason play, pitching-wise, is very similar [to] the rest of the way.”

Mid-Prairie is 6-16 but continues to get great production at the plate from Sophie Miller, who is batting .455 with eight doubles, two homers and 19 runs scored.

Fellow junior Kadence Grout is hitting .310 for the Golden Hawks with a team-high 19 RBI. Head coach Danielle Williams says success for her team down the stretch this season will come down to perseverance.

“Can we fight [until] the very end,” Williams says. “We’ve got to have it from the very beginning [and] be fully in [the game] to the very end, win or loss.”

Washington has won back-to-back meetings with Mid-Prairie and six of the last seven matchups. You can hear the Demons take on the Golden Hawks this evening on 106.1 FM KCII and streaming on KCIIradio.com and the KCII1 app, starting with pregame coverage at 6:30.