The Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell baseball club stunned Henry-Senachwine on Monday, beating the host Mallards in the opening game of their Tri-County Conference two-game series for WFC’s first win of the 2026 season.

Senior leadoff man Carson Rowe and his Mallards teammates made certain right from the start it wouldn’t happen again in Tuesday’s series finale at the Windy Confines in rural Streator.

“We just didn’t show up focused yesterday,” said Rowe, who led off Tuesday’s 16-1, five-inning win over the Warriors with a triple, scored the game’s initial run and added a two-run homer off the back of Woodland School’s football bleachers in the top of the third. “Today, I kind of got them together and focused them on the bus, made sure everybody was ready to play.

“We didn’t come out sluggish like we did yesterday.”

The win – a product of Henry-Senachwine’s four-run first inning, 14-hit attack and five-inning complete game from winning pitcher Jacob Miller – lifts the Mallards to 12-15 overall and 6-10 in the Tri-County Conference.

WFC, which won its first game of the season 4-3 at Henry on Monday led by a complete-game pitching performance from Reece Pelnarsh, is now 1-17 overall, 1-15 in the TCC.

“I think we came out flat yesterday and maybe put the cart before the horse a little bit, and it burned us,” Mallards coach Teddy Rowe said of Monday’s loss to WFC. “Give (WFC) a lot of credit; they put the bat on the ball yesterday, they made plays happen, and we didn’t.

“We rebounded today, refocused, and obviously got the outcome we were looking for. [Tuesday’s fast start] was huge mentally.”

The Warriors responded to Henry’s four-run top of the first with its lone run of the ballgame in the home half, Pelnarsh legging out a leadoff extra-base hit of his own with a double, taking third on a wild pitch and scoring on a Nolan Price sacrifice fly. A Brezdyn Simons single later in the inning, however, turned out to be WFC’s only other hit against Miller (5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 K), who looked stronger and stronger as the game went on.

Henry-Senachwine added a seven-run third and five-run fifth for insurance Miller would never come close to needing.

“Just hats off to Henry. They came out hitting the ball tonight,” WFC coach Dan Essman said. “We made a few errors here and there that hurt us a little bit, but mostly later. They were just hitting the ball well. Kudos to Henry.”

Rowe (triple, homer, two RBIs, three runs scored), Evan Culp (single, double, four RBIs), Austin Keith (single, double, three RBIs, three runs scored), Ashton Sprague (two singles, double, two RBIs, three runs scored) and Bobby Gaspardo (two singles, three runs scored) spearheaded the Mallards attack against three WFC pitchers.

Nolan Price (2⅔ IP, 10 ER, 10 H, 2 BB, 1 K) started and suffered the loss. Noah Lopez (1⅔ IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 5 BB, 0 K) and Brayden Marsinko (⅔ IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K) took the mound in relief.

“This was Nolan’s second time pitching this year after being out with an arm injury,” Essman said. “He’s still trying to get back into the swing of things. He’s getting there, but he’s not fully there, obviously.”

Now done with Tri-County Conference play, the Warriors and Mallards will finish the regular season with nonconference opponents before heading into their respective IHSA Class 1A regionals.

WFC has a Thursday game at Lexington and a pair of what look like potentially winnable home games next week against five-win Galva on Monday and winless Indian Creek on Wednesday.

Henry-Senachwine is scheduled to host Midwest Central this Thursday, then next week hosts Tremont on Tuesday and Milford on Saturday.