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No. 6 Lynx punish Bulldogs in regular season finale, increase win streak to 18 straight

Stoakes drives in 3 runs, WCHS finishes off second straight unbeaten campaign in conference

ALGONA — One of the finest regular seasons in the history of the Webster City baseball program was capped with yet another dominant performance here Monday night.

And as head coach Adison Kehoe said afterward, one goal has been accomplished. Now it’s on to the next goal.

Tyler Olson was his usual stellar self on the mound and the sixth-ranked (Class 3A) Lynx rattled off eight hits in a 10-0, six-inning romp over North Central Conference rival Algona.

WCHS (24-1, 14-0 NCC) putting together a strong season was expected long before the first pitch back in late May. But did anyone expect this? Well, yeah.

“This is what we talked about going back to January,” Kehoe said. “Returning everyone, we knew we were going to have a giant bull’s-eye on us and we were going to get everybody’s best shot. We definitely had our ups and downs, but we weathered the storm pretty well.”

Now that is an understatement.

After winning six of seven one-run games in its initial 14 outings, WCHS blitzed the competition over the final three weeks of the season. The Lynx claimed 12 run-rule shortened wins during the regular season and outscored their final eight opponents 83-8.

Monday’s win was the Lynx 18th in a row since their lone loss to Ames, 4-3, on June 3. It also finished off the team’s second consecutive unbeaten NCC slate and increased its conference win streak to 22 dating back to July of 2019.

Olson, who will be on the mound Friday night when WCHS opens up the postseason against Eagle Grove, went five innings and allowed just one hit — an infield single — in the rout of Algona (16-13, 9-5 NCC). He struck out five and lowered his season ERA to 0.41.

Olson is now 26-1 in his career with a 0.63 ERA and 239 strikeouts in 1662⁄3 innings of work.

Zach Dyvig came on to pitch the sixth and finished off the combined two-hitter.

Devon Stoakes and Trey Lyons both supplied two hits and combined to drive in four runs. Stoakes laced a two-out RBI single in the second inning to give the Lynx the only run they would need, and he increased the lead to 4-0 in the fourth with a two-RBI double.

Lyons pushed it to 5-0 in the fifth with an RBI single, and WCHS shoved five across in the sixth to put the Bulldogs away.

Beau Klaver also found the gap for a double. Olson, Ty McKinney and Sean Carver all roped a single.

The next phase of the Lynx grand plan features a deep run in the postseason. Eagle Grove (11-12) will be the first hurdle in a Substate 2 quarterfinal at Lynx Field, as WCHS embarks on what it hopes will be its first appearance at the state tournament since 2007.

“The guys are pretty eager to see what can be done starting on Friday,” Kehoe said. “Hopefully we can make some noise.”

Tickets for Friday’s substate quarterfinal must be purchased online at www.iahsaa.org/tickets. No tickets will be sold at the gate for the 7 p.m. contest.

WCHS 10, Algona 0 (6 inn)

Monday at Algona

WCHS 010 315 — 10 8 1

Algona 000 000 — 0 2 2

Tyler Olson, Zach Dyvig (6) and Devon Stoakes. Cameren Rindone, Jensen Eischen (4), Miles Goche (6) and Wyatt Streit, Tristin Larsen (6). W — Olson. L — Rindone. Multiple hits — WC: Stoakes, Trey Lyons. 2B — WC: Stoakes, Beau Klaver. RBI — Stoakes (3), Klaver, Lyons, CJ Hisler, Chase Rattenborg, Connor Hanson.

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