Estherville, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – Estherville Lincoln Central hosted Algona Tuesday night in what turned out to be the game of the year in the KICD 9-County Area.

ELC’s Rylee Yager battled the Bulldogs Allison Trunkhill in the circle, and the two were excellent, as neither team was able to score a run in the regulated 7 innings of play.

Algona struck first in extras for the top of the 8th on a Maya Lentz RBI that brought in Trunkhill to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.

ELC came back with a run in the bottom of the 8th as Yager brought in Cara Schiltz on a 2 out triple, tying the game at 1 and sending it to a 9th inning.

The #1 and #2 seeds in 3A Region 7 traded scoreless halves of innings till the top of the 12th when Kayla Buscher scored on a ELC fielding error, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.

Trunkhill retired the first two batters of the ELC due in the bottom of the 12th. Down to their last out, Addison Hooge and Cara Schiltz drew back-to-back walks, and Riley Yager tied the game again with an RBI to score Hooge. Yager talked about her two clutch at bats down the stretch.

Haley Stokes came to the plate with an opportunity to walk it off. Stokes had a walk-off RBI opportunity in the 8th with Yager on 3rd but had lined out to short. This time, Stokes went opposite field with a single, bringing in the winning run. Stokes talked about the difference in the at-bats.

ELC coach Megan Anderson said she knew Stokes was going to come through the second time around.

Rylee Yager threw all 12 innings, allowing only 1 earned run on 8 hits and striking out 16.

Coach Anderson says Yager executed as she has all season.

The extra 5 innings wore on both teams, but Stokes wasn’t going to let the season end before the State Tournament.

ELC advances to the State Tournament with the 3-2 win.