Stories from Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Annika Stecker's leaping goal and a stout defensive effort was all the Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji girls needed to advance in postseason play Thursday night, as the Indians edged Storm Lake 1-0 at home. It was the Indians' third straight one-goal win over the Tornadoes this season, and the sixth meeting between the two that was decided by a single goal since the start of the 2016 season...

Spirit Lake-Okoboji's Tom Zuendorf competed at the IHSAA Boys State Individual Tennis Tournament held Friday, May 26 in Waterloo. Zuendorf went 0-2 at the tourney. He lost his first match to Marion's Nate Meister (2-6, 0-6) and lost his second round match to Clake-Osceoloa's Reed Morris (6-3, 5-7, 0-1)...

Harris-Lake Park plated two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to pull ahead of Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn/Remsen-Union in a 4-3 season-opening win over the Royals in Lake Park. The Wolves took an early 2-0 lead, as junior Blake Gunderson launched a pitch deep over the left field fence in the first inning, and they held that lead until the top half of the fourth. There, the Royals plated a pair to knot it at 2-2 before taking a lead with a run in the top half of the following frame...

Down a run, Spirit Lake plated three in the fifth and another in the sixth to defeat visiting Sioux Central 5-3 on Wednesday, May 24. The Rebels struck first, scoring one in the top of the first and another in the top of the third to lead 2-0. The Indians answered in the bottom half of the third, as Austin Jennings ripped a leadoff double into right before scoring on a bunt by Ben Newman to make it 2-1...

Okoboji struggled for much of Tuesday night's home-opener against Alta-Aurelia, but the Pioneers caught fire in the late innings only to come up a pair of runs short in a 6-4 loss to the Warriors. Alta-Aurelia sophomore slinger Abby Kraemer allowed just one Okoboji run in the first five innings, but surrendered three in the final two in her team's victory...

Spirit Lake's Marta Asensio Povar and Okoboji's Hannah Butler completed their opening rounds Tuesday at the Class 2A and 3A girls state golf tournaments. Asensio Povar carded a 10-over-par round of 82 at Lake Panorama National Golf Course in Panora, and Butler carded a 19-over-par round of 90 at Jester Park Golf Course in Granger...

Senior Erin Dau and the Spirit Lake Park-Okoboji girls soccer team's season came to a close Tuesday night with a 7-0 loss to Lakes Conference rival Spencer in the Class 2A Region 2 semifinals. Look for complete coverage online at dickinsoncountynews.com and in next week's Dickinson County News...

The Spirit Lake-Okoboji girls tennis team suffered a 5-1 loss in the first round of state tournament play Tuesday, May 23, ending its season against Shenandoah in Denison. SL-O coach Bob O'Hara said the Mustangs were much more aggressive and were better composed...

Okoboji's "Kid K" is back at it. Freshman Abbie Klatt, who fanned 282 total batters in her eighth-grade season a year ago, struck out a season-high 17 Monday night while leading the Pioneers to a 10-2 road rout of Spencer. Klatt allowed just two earned runs on six hits and three walks in seven innings of work...

After dropping its season-opening contest to fifth-ranked (1A) Newell-Fonda, the 14th-ranked (3A) Spirit Lake softball team went on a tear at a tournament in Sioux City, topping Sioux City East, Sioux City North, Lawton-Bronson and seventh-ranked (5A) Fort Dodge...

The Spirit Lake baseball team went 1-1 over the weekend at a tournament hosted by returning Class 1A state champion Remsen St. Mary's. The Indians earned a three-run win over Humboldt, but lost a one-run contest with the top-ranked Hawks on Saturday...

Spirit Lake senior Gavin DeVos pitched a gem Friday night, leading the Indians to a 7-1 road win over Central Lyon. DeVos allowed just one earned run on three hits and a walk while striking out 10 in seven innings. The Lions lone run came in the bottom half of the seventh, as senior Brandt Boekhout doubled to center to score Jaydon Baker. To that point, though, it was all Spirit Lake...

Harris-Lake Park put on a hitting clinic Friday night in front if its home crowd, as the Wolves torched Trinity Christian 13-2 in five innings to improve to 2-0 on the season. H-LP scored four in the first, one in the second and seven in the third to lead the Tigers 12-0 heading into the fifth inning. There, Trinity Christian got two back, but the Wolves plated one in the bottom half of the fifth to end it...

The Okoboji softball team picked up its second straight win of the young season Friday with a 20-1 road rout of George-Little Rock/Central Lyon that ended after just four innings. The Pioneers battered the Lions, plating seven in the second, five in the third and eight in the fourth. They scored 20 runs on 23 hits...

After earning a convincing 22-9 win over Sibley-Ocheyedan on Thursday, the Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire softball team suffered a setback against Alta-Aurelia the following night. The Titans struggled offensively, and the Warriors took advantage, downing the visitors 15-2 in four innings in Alta...

After earning back-to-back 2-1 home wins over Pocahontas Area and Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire, the Okoboji baseball team suffered its first setback of the season Friday with a 10-0 road loss to Alta-Aurelia. The Warriors plated two in the first, three in the third, four in the fourth and five in the fifth to salt away the win...

Spirit Lake Park wrestlers Daniel Trucksess (left) and John Tuttle (right) recently signed to continue their athletic and academic careers in college. Trucksess will attend Hannibal LaGrange University, a private four-year Christian liberal arts college located in Hannibal, Missouri, and Tuttle will attend Buena Vista University in Storm Lake. They are pictured with SLP coach Andrew Lundgren (center)...

Following a series of landscaping issues along the shores of West Lake Okoboji last year, the Okoboji City Council put a moratorium on the issuance of any lakeshore landscaping or construction permits until a better more consistent ordinance could be devised...

Early summer can provide some of the best fishing action of the year for many species of fish found in the Midwest. In fact, many very successful anglers consider June to be the best time of the year to go fishing. Walleyes and bass are particularly susceptible to an angler’s presentation right now. If you want to catch more fish in the next few weeks, consider these ideas...

Live bait is a critical component to catching walleye on many fisheries.  Even with the advent of soft plastics and the fact that more walleye anglers have confidence with artificial baits, there is still a time and place for live bait. With today’s presentations that have replaced live bait with soft plastics in regards to both rigging and jigging, the fall back to live bait often correlates with finesse and triggering fish that won’t commit to more aggressive presentations. When you need to sit on a spot, live bait still shines.. ...

Well, the first big holiday weekend has come and gone. Just looking at the boat ramps over the weekend showed that residents and visitors alike wanted to be on the water! I spent Saturday morning looking for shallow water bluegills and found enough for a great meal. ...

The Sioux Central softball team outscored Harris-Lake Park 15-5 in five innings Thursday night, ending the Wolves' night early. H-LP struck first in the top half of the opening frame, plating a pair to take a 2-0 lead, but Sioux Central stormed back, scoring four in the first and four more in the second to lead 8-2...

The Harris-Lake Park baseball team plated two in the bottom half of the seventh inning to top Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn/Remsen-Union in walk-off fashion in Thursday night's season opener. The Wolves led early, pushing one across in the bottom half of the first frame and another in the bottom half of the third to lead 2-0. The Royals responded with a pair in the fourth to knot it at 2-2 before taking a one-run lead with a run in the top half of the sixth, but H-LP had the final say...

Okoboji broke open a 2-2 tie with a three-run fifth inning Thursday in a 5-2 season-opening road win over Algona. The two teams were scoreless through three innings before Okoboji plated a pair in the top half of the fourth and the Bulldogs scored two in the bottom half of the frame...

Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire plated 17 runs combined in the sixth and seventh innings Thursday night to rout Sibley-Ocheyedan 22-9 on the road. It was the first win of the season for the Titans. The Generals led 1-0 after one, but GT/RA knotted the game at 1-1 with a run in the second and took a 3-1 lead with a pair in the top half of the third. The Generals answered with four runs in the bottom half of the frame to lead 5-3...

Newell-Fonda scored three runs in the top half of the first inning Wednesday and hung on to defeat Spirit Lake 6-4 in front of the Indians faithful. The Mustangs got a leadoff single from Olivia Larsen. Spirit Lake pitcher Kelsey Kannenberg responded by striking out sophomore Emma Stewart, but a passed ball and a wild pitch allowed Larsen to advance to third...

Okoboji plated a run in the bottom half of the sixth to break a tie with Dickinson County rival Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire on Wednesday, May 24, as the Pioneers topped the Titans 2-1. Okoboji got on the board first, plating a run in the bottom half of the first. The Titans returned the favor, scoring one in the third to knot it at 1-1...

The Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire softball team rallied late to send its season-opening game with Estherville Lincoln Central into extras, but eventually suffered a lopsided defeat at the hands of the Midgets. ELC scored runs in each of the first six innings to take a 6-3 lead over the Titans into the bottom half of the sixth. There, GT/RA plated three runs to knot the game at 6-6...