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Lynx rip 9 hits, close gap against Boone

Toreadors put talented offense on display; Whitehill 3 RBIs for WCHS

A smiling Leah Kasch (facing) high-fives Faith Anderson on her way back to the dugout after scoring a run in the third inning against Boone on Tuesday. Webster City fell to the Toreadors, 11-6. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

BOONE — Records can be deceiving. What isn’t is power.

Boone has plenty of the latter and it was on display Tuesday night.

With eight losses to ranked teams on its resume, the Toreadors are perhaps an unassumingly talented team, but they certainly got Webster City’s attention in an 11-6 victory on their home diamond.

Boone (7-11) pounded out 13 hits and received a two-run home run from Lauren Calkins to beat the Lynx (7-8) for the second time this season. The Toreadors prevailed 13-3 when the two teams met at the Ogden Invite last month.

“They’re tough,” WCHS head coach Jess Howard said. “They’re big and they’re powerful and they’ve got some speed behind it.”

Webster City center fielder Zoey Woodle makes a leaping catch on a ball driven off the bat of Boone’s Emma Dighton on Tuesday in Boone. The Toreadors knocked off the Lynx, 11-6. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Atlanta Hopp got the call in the circle for WCHS and the junior right-hander did all she could to hold the potent lineup at bay. Four Lynx errors didn’t help her cause; they led to three unearned runs.

Hopp didn’t record a strikeout, but Howard was pleased with her performance.

“She fights and she moves the ball,” she said. “It’s not a lot of power behind it, but she hits her spots and gets the ball where it needs to be to get those ground ball and fly ball outs that are easier to make plays on.”

Caitlynne Shadle, Zoey Hightshoe and Jordan Trowbridge all smacked three hits for Boone. Trowbridge piled up four RBIs and Hightshoe plated two more.

WCHS put up nine hits off Toreador pitchers Emily Ades and Emma Dighton. It was as much about quality as quantity, Howard said. The Lynx put charges into the ball and forced the Toreadors into three defensive miscues.

WCHS head coach Jess Howard (right) confers with Leah Kasch during a break in play against Boone on Tuesday. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“The girls did a good job of stringing hits together,” Howard said. “This was some of the best hitting that we’ve had one through nine this year.”

Taylor McKinney, Kelly Stoakes and Cynthia Whitehill all had two hits. Whitehill drove in three runs. Zoey Woodle added a first-inning triple to the deepest part of the park in center, while Haley Flaws and Leah Kasch both singled.

Behind Calkins’ long ball to left field in the first inning, Boone jumped out to a 3-0 lead. WCHS briefly moved in front following a four-run third, as McKinney and Kasch delivered RBI line-drive singles and Whitehill plated two more on a blooper into left field.

But the Toreadors quickly answered with three more runs in the third. Trowbridge provided the dagger when she sliced a Hopp offering down the right-field line for a two-RBI triple.

Boone tacked on one run in the fifth and four more in the sixth to push its advantage to 11-4.

WCHS shortstop Taylor McKinney (left) tags out Boone’s Kinsie Zinnel (4) on a stolen base attempt on Tuesday. Lynx catcher Kaitlynn Seeley threw out two Toreadors on stolen base attempts. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Dighton, the ace of the Toreadors’ pitching staff who came on in the fourth inning, held WCHS scoreless through the sixth. But the Lynx finally got to her in the seventh.

McKinney opened the final-inning rally with her second hit — a hard shot back up the middle. She eventually scored when Stoakes took a riseball the other way into the gap in left-center for a stand-up RBI double.

With two outs, Whitehill tagged Dighton for a RBI single into center.

WCHS had plenty of other chances to dig into Boone’s lead, but left eight runners stranded on base, three of them in scoring position. Woodle’s first-inning one-out triple was eliminated when she attempted to score on a safety squeeze bunt by McKinney and one inning later Kasch was left standing on third.

“If we can score those runs when we get to second (base) every inning, it’s a completely different outcome,” Howard said. “It’s just staying focused and executing when we get runners on.”

Lynx second baseman Tatum Goings gets in position to field a ground ball against Boone. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Following lat night’s trip to Humboldt to take on the third-ranked (Class 3A) Wildcats, WCHS will have a few days off before it heads to the Martensdale St. Marys tournament on Saturday.

Boone 11, Webster City 6

Tuesday at Boone

Web City 004 000 2 — 6 9 4

Boone 303 014 x — 11 13 3

Atlanta Hopp and Kaitlynn Seeley. Emily Ades, Emma Dighton (4) and Zoey Hightshoe. W — Dighton. L — Hopp. 2B — WC: Kelly Stoakes. 3B — WC: Zoey Woodle; BO: Jordan Trowbridge. HR — BO: Lauren Calkins. Multiple hits — WC: Stoakes, Taylor McKinney, Cynthia Whitehill; BO: Hightshoe (3), Trowbridge (3), Caitlynne Shadle (3). RBI — WC: Whitehill (3), McKinney, Stoakes, Leah Kasch; BO: Trowbridge (4), Calkins (2), Hightshoe (3), Shadle, Jaiden Huseman.

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