Comets reach 30 wins, move up to No. 2

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — CHARLES CITY — There were two numbers within reach for the Charles City Comet softball team on Thursday.

One was the numeral “30” as in season wins, which the Comets could have been the first team in Iowa to reach this season contingent on a doubleheader sweep of Decorah.

The other was “1” as in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union weekly ranking in the Class 4A division.

The Comets managed to get to 30 by way of pulling away late from the Vikings in both games in finals of 3-0 and 9-4.

But after sitting for five weeks at No. 3 in the said rankings, the Comets only moved up one spot to No. 2.

Carlisle, who the week before took the No. 1 spot from ADM, remains at No. 1 while ADM switches spots with the Comets in the rankings released Thursday.

In the first game, Viking starter Avery Shelton match zeroes with Comet all-state ace Sami Heyer through three innings. But in the Charles City half of the fourth, Comet freshman Ashlyn Hoeft clubbed her ninth homer of the season which was good for 2 runs.

Rachel Chambers later added an insurance run in the sixth with a solo shot, her team-leading 12th of the season.
Heyer had 11 strikeouts and yielded one hit in the seven-inning shutout.

The Comets’ 30th win may not have been the prettiest victory of the season as they committed five errors, several of which resulted in a 4-run second inning for the Vikings, giving them a 4-3 lead.

But Charles City’s offense made up for the lapses as Lis Fiser, Lydia Staudt and Hoeft each had three hits, and Kiki Connell and Chambers both had two hits.

Up 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Comets rallied for 4 runs, giving Heyer more than enough to protect.

Charles City will have a chance to make an even greater claim to No. 1 in next week’s rankings as it will face Class 4A No. 5-ranked Independence in a makeup game on the road Friday.

Another number that came into play Thursday was a six-figure one — as in a $150,000 Prairie Meadow Legacy Grant for the new Charles City Sports Complex.

The group of students involved in petitioning for the grant — Atticus and Sabastian Parrott, Kaden Barry, Miya Rimrod, Brynlee Sullivan and Emerson Bohlen as well as Chambers and Staudt learned that their efforts paid off when it was announce between games that the grant was approved.