A recent trend continues: North Linn sweeps Lisbon in Tri-Rivers softball twinbill

TROY MILLS — There’s no easy explanation.

Two evenly matched, tradition-laden programs play each season, and the result is usually the same.

“It could be a little mental,” North Linn Coach Chad Spore said. “Sometimes, when you flip a coin, it will turn up ‘heads’ four times in a row.”

It turned up “Lynx” again Thursday night.

Irys Benesch delivered a clutch three-run double in the sixth inning of the first game, Chloe Flanagan earned both pitching wins — both in relief — and Class 1A eighth-ranked North Linn edged 2A No. 3 Lisbon by a pair of 7-6 verdicts in a Tri-Rivers Conference doubleheader at North Linn High School.

The nightcap went eight innings.

“We’re a very young team,” said Benesch, a freshman. “I think people look at that and think they’re going to stomp all over us.”

Think again.

“These kids that are coming through now, they were 10U and 11U kids when I got here,” Spore said. “A lot of these kids have taken a lot of lessons, and continue to get better.

“The most exciting part, and you can’t teach this, is that they have that resilience and that confidence that they know they can do it.”

Flanagan is an eighth-grader. She is the fourth — and final — of the Flanagan sisters. The first three were extremely successful in their North Linn days.

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“It was really fun to sit back and watch them,” she said. “At home, they would give me really good advice.”

Such as ...

“Stay in your lane, and always keep your head up,” Flanagan said.

The Lynx (4-0 overall, 4-0 Tri-Rivers) had more than a few chances to drop their noggins in this twinbill. They trailed 5-3 and 6-4 late in the first contest, but Benesch rescued them.

“I was coming off a couple of pop-ups,” she said. “But we had the momentum going our way, and it was good to see that one drop in.”

That made a winner of Flanagan, who threw two scoreless innings.

Lisbon (2-2, 2-2) got out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, but the Lynx chipped away, and eventually pulled it out.

With the Lynx still facing a 6-4 deficit in the sixth, No. 9 hitter Lillian McMahon — another eighth-grader — came through with a two-run single to tie it.

Then, in the eighth, Peyton McMahon’s infield grounder sent Ava Hoover home for the game-winner.

Flanagan pitched the last seven innings in the nightcap, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits.

“A lot of fastballs, though I did throw a few drops,” she said. “I just went with it.”

Emma Pleasant drove in three runs for Lisbon in the second game.

North Linn has won eight straight in the series, 14 of the last 15.

North Linn 7-7, Lisbon 6-6 (2nd, 8)

At Troy Mills

GAME 1

Lisbon 010 311 0 — 6 9 3

North Linn 003 013 x — 7 9 2

Kyla Kahl and Emma Dietsch. Lily Rehberg, Aliyah Wegmann (4), Chloe Flanagan (6) and Scout Krogmann. W — Flanagan (1-0). L — Kahl (1-1).

GAME 2

Lisbon 400 101 00 — 6 7 1

North Linn 200 022 01 — 7 10 2

Emma Pleasant and Techau. Ava Hoover, Chloe Flanagan (2) and Scout Krogmann. W — Flanagan (2-0). L — Pleasant (1-1).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com