The Washington baseball team improved their record to 20-2 after a win over Lone Grove Monday night.

The win put them in the driver’s seat in the District 3A-1.

Lone Grove

With the 3-1 win, they are 9-0 in District.

Tristan Babbitt struck out six batters in five innings on the mound.

Jonathen Montoya came in for the final two innings and sat down two batters.

Babbitt walked six batters but the Warrior defense behind him played error-free baseball.

“He was having to pitch it a little more because of their hitters,” Warrior head coach Jeff Kulbeth said. “The strike zone was pretty tight too. But we don’t complain about tight strike zones because we want to be playing in games later in the year where we have tight zones.”

The game was locked in a 0-0 tie until both teams scored a run in the fourth inning.

The Warriors pushed two more runs over the plate in the fifth inning.

Liam Keltner was on a mission at the plate, going 2-3 with two doubles and an RBI.

Lone Grove’s lefty pitcher was not making life easy.

“It’s hard with that guy on the mound,” Kulbeth said. “He was sitting at 89-90 and topped out at 93.”

Case Taylor’s wild at-bat allowed the Warriors to take the lead in the fifth.

“It was a breaking ball and I thought Case hit it after it hit the ground,” Kulbeth said. “ The ball dribbled out into the field and I thought he was going to make it to first and get credit for a hit.

“Dax was at third and I sent him home. Then here comes Marlon whizzing by. I wasn’t even waving him through but he was barreling home. That’s how we scored our other two runs,” Kulbeth said with a chuckle.

Comanche

The Warriors defeated Comanche twice last week, both were 13-0 wins, and picked up a pair of District wins.

“I thought we swung it well in those games,” Kulbeth said. “We had not been having a bunch of great swings but we got better against Comanche.”

Babbitt got the start and struck out seven batters and allowed one hit in four innings.

Montoya closed out the final inning and struck out one batter.

Kade Norman and Marlon Moore both homered. Moore finished with four RBIs in the game.

Dax McCaskill was 2-3 with three ribbies.

After scoring one run in the first inning, they scored five in the second and seven in the third to close out the game.

In the second game, Moore got the ball on the bump. He struck out five while giving up a hit and a walk.

Norman struck out two batters in an inning of relief work.

McCaskill and Moore both homered. McCaskill also doubled and was 2-3 with a walk and three RBIs.

The Warriors, who played error-free baseball, hung crooked letters in the second, third and fifth innings.

Mount St. Mary

Washington played Mount St. Mary in the first round of the Marlow tournament and fell 5-4.

Owen Andrews started at pitcher and struck out five batters in five innings. He allowed two earned runs.

Keltner and Montoya pitched in relief.

Moore tripled and had two RBIs at the plate.

Washington had three errors in the field, which led to runs for Mount St. Mary.

“Owen pitched it really well Thursday,” Kulbeth said. “A couple errors allowed them some runs.”

Verden

Washington defeated Verden in the second game of the tournament, 11-1.

The Warriors put five runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning after Verden scored one in the top of the first.

The Warriors scored five more in the third inning and tacked on one more run in the fourth.

Moore was 2-2 with a pair of doubles and knocked in three runs.

Berglan and Keltner also doubled.

Berglan threw seven Ks in three innings.

Kale Brakefield had a pair of strikeouts.

Elgin

Elgin led Washington 2-0 in the fifth inning when rain canceled the game in the Marlow tournament.

“That’s a really good Elgin team who will be in the State tournament and they’re good enough to make some noise,” Kulbeth said.

The Warriors had three errors in the game and Elgin scored two runs in the first.

“Brakefield was throwing it really well,” Kulbeth said.

Washington will be back in action next week against Lindsay.