Prep baseball: Blue Demons continue to make strides

SCOTT JACKSON, Ottumwa Courier, IowaWed, June 10, 2026 at 4:18 PM UTC·2 min read

ALBIA — Three games in two days against two teams that were part of the state tournament field last season.

The Albia baseball team faced a pair of tough challenges to open a brand new week, hoping to turn things around after entering the week enduring a five-game losing streak. The Blue Demons proved they may be heading in the right direction by opening the week making an impact in the South Central Conference race, stunning defending conference champion Chariton in the opening game of a doubleheader on Monday with a 9-3 win over the Chargers, snapping Chariton's 10-game winning streak in the series.

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"That's our first win over there since I've been here," Albia head baseball coach Brad DeMoss said. "We finally cracked that egg."

The win dropped Chariton out of first place in the conference, handing the Chargers just their second SCC loss of the season. It also brought out the best aspects in the Blue Demons, matching a season-high for runs in a single game matching the total number of runs scored in the previous four games combined.

"We're able to give our pitchers run support, which is something we couldn't give them at the beginning of the year," DeMoss said. "If there's a statistic for runners left on base, I guarantee that we'd be number one in that area because we've left a ton of base runners on. The last few weeks, we've cut that number down. We're scoring more. We're hitting more. The boys are finally starting to see that and we're starting to see that on the scoreboard where we're giving ourselves chances to win."

Albia returned home on Tuesday after splitting the conference doubleheader against Chariton, hosting South Iowa Cedar League hopeful Lynnville-Sully. The Hawks were able to escape with a 5-4 win, holding off the resilient Blue Demons stranding Bryson Reed with the potential tying run at third base when Connor Deal struck out Jaxon Strickler on a foul tip to secure the contest.

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"We're in close games now. We just haven't quite been able to get over that hump of winning those close games consistently," DeMoss said. "The guys are understanding how important it is to hustle to get that extra run here or there. They're starting to buy into that concept. We're putting the ball in play and putting runners on. It's a slow process, but we feel like we're starting to where we need to be at."

Albia (4-12, 2-8 SCC) hosts Centerville in conference action on Thursday.

Story byOttumwa Courier, Iowa