WEBSTER CITY – Jess Howard’s mannerisms that tell her players she’s frustrated – putting her hands on her head, looking down and swiping at the dirt with her feet and smacking her hands together, just to name a few – were on full display during the early innings Monday night at Lynx Field.

Frustration quickly turned to relief in the later innings however, as Webster City’s lethal bats eventually took control in a come-from-behind 5-4 North Central Conference win over Hampton-Dumont.

The Bulldogs led 4-1 have after 41?2 innings. WCHS (4-2, 3-0 NCC) tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the fifth and went ahead for good courtesy of a game-winning RBI ground out off the bat of Allie Flaws.

“Anytime you get behind, as a batter you get that little bit of pressure on you. But the girls have done a good job of staying strong offensively when they’ve been down defensively,” Howard, the Lynx head coach, said after her club stayed atop the conference standings. “We made some miscues, but I give the girls credit for staying composed and not making one error turn into two, three or four.”

Bringing out the heavy lumber has been the Lynx calling card through six games. They’re hitting .418 as a team and averaging 11.8 base knocks per game. They’re also tied for third in the state, regardless of class, with six home runs.

Mikaleh McCoy blasted No. 6 out of the park – it was her second dinger of the season – in the fifth. She followed Hannah Myers’ lead-off double by turning on a pitch and sending it over the left field fence for a two-run shot. Maddie Anderson and Courtney Lampman also roped doubles in the frame and Anderson crossed the plate to knot the contest at 4.

WCHS finished with eight hits, five of which went for extra bases. The squad as pounded at least one home run in five of its six outings.

Flaws lined a lead-off double off Bulldogs’ starting pitcher Ashlyn Hansen in the bottom of the first and she raced to the plate on a McCoy RBI single. McCoy lashed a double in the third and only missed out on a chance to hit for the cycle because she didn’t get a fourth at bat.

“She had a great night offensively,” Howard said of McCoy, who finished 3-for-3 with three RBI.

Hampton-Dumont scored unearned runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings to build the lead. During that same span the Lynx missed out on opportunity after opportunity to shove runs across. They stranded six runners – five of them were in scoring position – in the initial four innings.

“We had a lot of scoring opportunities early that we didn’t take advantage of,” Howard said. ‘We have to do a better job of, once we get runners in scoring position, getting them around and in.”

Hampton-Dumont played a part in the Lynx early difficulties. The visitors got out of a bases loaded jam in the first by turning a 5-2-3 double play.

Taylor Schnathorst added a single and scored the winning run after being hit by a pitch at the start of the sixth inning.

McCoy allowed just five hits and one earned run while striking out five in the circle.

The Lynx biggest test to date will occur tonight when they make the 20-minute drive to Fort Dodge to take on third-ranked (Class 2A) and preseason conference favorite St. Edmond (7-1, 2-0 NCC) at 7:15 p.m. Led by pitcher Amanda Lansman, the Gaels lone loss this season came at the hands of top-ranked (1A) Woodbury Central.

St. Edmond won the NCC title in 2014.

“If we can keep up with (Lansman) and play solid defense, it should be a fun game to watch and play,” Howard said.