Mount Vernon baseball postseason magic? Not this time. No. 6 Western Dubuque baseball was the guy in the crowd revealing every magic trick.

The Bobcats pitched a no-hitter in a 11-1, 5-inning win Monday, July 13, at Farley City Ball Park.

“There were some hard-hit balls, but none of them found green,” Mount Vernon Coach Charles Chatman said. “We got stuck in quicksand and couldn’t get out of it.”

Bobcat freshman Milo Schroeder went two innings and sophomore Brady Wissman pitched the final three.

Mount Vernon got its lone run during the top of the third inning. No. 8 hitter Cole McDermott reached on a walk and scored on a fielder’s choice when leadoff hitter Easton Reasland put the ball in play.

At the time, it tied the game, 1-1.

But Western Dubuque scored four runs in the bottom of the third, then ended the game early with six runs in the bottom of the fifth.

The Bobcats went on to beat Independence 7-4 in the Class 3A substate final, and punched their ticket to state.

That makes it four years in a row Mount Vernon has been knocked out by the eventual state qualifier (Western Dubuque twice, Dubuque Wahlert and Davenport Assumption).

“It sucks we can’t get past that,” Chatman said. “It is good company to be in. High-caliber programs. But there’s always one of those teams blocking the way.”

Mount Vernon (14-17) says goodbye to four pretty vital seniors, among them Michael Ryan, who set the season and career record for stolen bases this summer. Cael Foreman is planning to pitch in college at Coe. Drew Thurn and Landon Wilson were also regulars.

“I thought, for as much turnover as we had from the year before, it was a successful season,” Chatman said. “We won a playoff game, we won some series in the conference. We did some really cool things this year.”