By John Hirl

The Oskaloosa Indians baseball team beat the Washington Demons 3-2 in a tight contest Monday night in Oskaloosa.

The game started out rocky for Oskaloosa, as Wyatt Krier started the game allowing five walks and two runs in the 1st inning. But, the Indians switched to Cole Kraber in the top of the 2nd inning, stopping the Washington scoring.

Kraber (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K) stifled the Demons all game long, allowing just 2 hits and no runs after coming in the game in the 2nd inning.

Oskaloosa got on the board for the first time in the 2nd inning when Noah VanVeldhuizen hit in Alex Dejong to make the score 1-2 Demons after 3 innings. Oskaloosa would add 2 runs in the 4th inning on an Alex Dejong groundout and a Noah VanVeldhuizen sacrifice fly, making it 3-2 Indians after 4 innings.

That score held throughout the remainder of the game, and Oskaloosa got the win. Kraber picked up his first win on the hill, while Washington pitcher Cade Hennigan was credited with the loss.

The Indians improved to 18-10 on the season and the Demons dropped to 16-8 on the year.

Oskaloosa’s Nick Harrington said in the postgame interview that he believes his team is peaking at the right point in the season, specifically the pitchers.

“We have a lot of pitchers that can go,” said Harrington. “I think we have enough guys to make a run at state.”

The baseball postseason will begin soon for the Indians. All Oskaloosa baseball games in the postseason will be able to be heard on 99.5 FM and 740 KMZN and all over the world at radiokmzn.com and the KMZN Mobile App.