But defense and the ability to finish off contests strong, well, those are different stories.

Ten different players joined the offensive fun, as the Lynx battered Fort Dodge St. Edmond for 19 hits in a 10-5 North Central Conference victory. They connected for nine base knocks by eight different players in the third inning alone, and seven starters recorded multiple hits.

In its last two games, both relatively easy victories, WCHS (5-3, 4-2 NCC) has amassed 32 hits and 21 runs.

“We just have to keep making sure that we’re a threat up and down the order,” WCHS head coach Jess Howard said. “The girls did a good job of attacking every inning except the first inning (one of only two in which the Lynx didn’t score). That’s something we need to make sure we’re doing is attacking in that first inning and setting the tone.”

WCHS lead-off stick Kelly Stoakes ropes one of her three hits during Monday’s 10-5 win over St. Edmond at Lynx Field. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

That was the good. The bad came in the form of five errors that led to all five of St. Edmond’s runs being unearned. And for the second straight game, WCHS allowed its opponent to light up the scoreboard in the final frame. St. Edmond (3-4, 2-3 NCC) scored four times in the seventh, just three days after Iowa Falls-Alden touched the Lynx for three in the seventh.

“We’ve got to be a first inning and a seventh inning team, and those are the innings that have killed us in games,” Howard said. “Even in games that we’ve won, we’ve had poor first innings and poor seventh innings. We’ve got to make sure we’re setting the tone in the first and shutting them down in the seventh.”

Luckily for WCHS, neither of its last two games have been close entering its opponents final at bat. It led St. Edmond 10-1 on Monday and Iowa Falls-Alden 11-3 last Friday.

Kelly Stoakes and Addie Tesdahl both got to St. Edmond pitcher Ella Vratny for three hits. Leah Kasch, Jenna Miller, Alayna Finucan, Faith Anderson and Tatum Goings all finished with two hits. Six different Lynx drove in at least one run, and Miller led the way with four, highlighted by a two-run home run to left field in the third inning.

Howard was particularly encouraged by the lower portion of her batting order. The Nos. 6-9 hitters recorded nine hits and had three RBIs.

Tatum Goings prepares to take her lead off second during Webster City’s 10-5 win over St. Edmond on Monday. Goings was one of seven Lynx players to record at least two hits. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“We’ve got a lot of speed in the bottom of our order, so when we can get them on they’re going to be very effective for us,” she said. “Anytime they can get on, we’re going to be very aggressive in that inning.”

Jocy Timmerman had two doubles for St. Edmond, one coming in the opening inning that staked the Gaels to an early 1-0 lead. Kalli Henning also had two hits.

Tesdahl’s first single — an RBI shot to left — knotted the game at 1 in the second. WCHS then sent 11 batters to the plate in the third and the nine knocks helped the Lynx open up a 6-1 edge. Miller’s two-run blast was followed by a Leah Kasch double, and back-to-back RBI singles by Livia Kasch and Anderson.

WCHS had a chance to bust it open even further in the fourth when it loaded the bases with no outs, but Vratny got out of trouble.

In the fifth though, the Lynx reeled off three more runs for a 9-1 cushion. Stoakes hit a liner towards the middle that plated Tesdahl, and two batters later Miller roped a two-run single into left.

WCHS shortstop Taylor McKinney (left) tags out St. Edmond’s Gracie Harvey on an attempted stolen base in the fifth inning on Monday. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Harper Kopriva and Anderson opened the sixth inning with consecutive singles, and pinch-runner Chloe Andersen scored on a double steal — two of the Lynx six stolen bases in the contest. But St. Edmond was able to avoid the 10-run rule and then connected for five hits in the seventh. WCHS committed two of its five errors as well in the seventh.

“A lot of it is mentality,” Howard said of her defense, which has committed 12 errors in the last three games. “Every pitch, you’ve got to be in a zone and anticipating where the ball is going to go. You have to have the mindset of I want the ball hit to me instead of I hope that the ball doesn’t get hit to me.”

WCHS will take its two-game winning streak on the road this evening to take on Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, in Clarion, at 7:30 p.m.

Webster City 10, St. Edmond 5

Monday at Webster City

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

St. Ed 100 000 4 — 5 9 2

Web City 015 031 x — 10 19 5

Ella Vratny and Kacey Kruthoff. Jenna Miller and Kelly Stoakes. WP — Miller. LP — Vratny. Multiple hits — SE: Kalli Henning, Jocy Timmerman; WC: Stoakes (3), Addie Tesdahl (3), Miller, Leah Kasch, Alayna Finucan, Faith Anderson, Tatum Goings. 2B — SE: Timmerman (2), Vratny; WC: Le. Kasch, Finucan. HR — WC: Miller. RBI — SE: Timmerman (2), Henning, Kruthoff; WC: Miller (4), Stoakes, Le. Kasch, Anderson, Tesdahl, Livia Kasch.