Comets finish regular season with 1-3 road trip

Press Staff Report
CORALVILLE — The Charles City Comets’ opponents have perhaps gotten an unfair rap this season.

Some of them are competitive and accomplished teams. But after staying with the Comets through three or four innings, Charles City’s volatile mix of speed and power eventually erupts, and what was a close game suddenly morphs into a mercy-rule blowout.

Such has been the case throughout much of the season which saw the Class 4A No. 2-ranked Comets win their first 32 games of the season.

But at the end of this regular season for the Comets, like several regular seasons before, there was a long road trip to the Coralville Recreation Center — home of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes — where several of the best teams in Class 5A were waiting for them.

During this past weekend, Charles City went 1-3 to conclude the regular season with a 33-3 record.

The Comets’ lone win came on Friday when they overcame committing seven errors on way to a 9-5 win over Oskaloosa.

Liz Fiser, Lydia Staudt and Alex Litterer each had three hits; and Ashlyn Hoeft clubbed her 10th home run of the season to help lead the Comets to victory. Hoeft is one of two freshmen on the team who have reached double figures in homers this season. Rachel Chambers, with a team-leading 13, is the other.

But also that day Comets suffered their first loss of the season when North Scott beat them 6-5 in eight innings.

Taylor Robertson’s two-out 2-RBI walk-off single won it for North Scott after Charles City had led 4-2 through three-and-a-half innings.

On Saturday, Charles City took on Pleasant Valley, which is ranked No. 10 in Class 5A. There, the Comets got behind early and lost 7-1. It was the most runs scored off Charles City’s all-state ace Sami Heyer this season, but only one of them was earned.

Heyer gave up only 1 run in Saturday’s latter game against West Des Moines Valley, which is ranked No. 2 in Class 5A. But that 1 run which came in the first inning stood up in a 1-0 final.

Heyer herself also went 1-3 during the weekend, but with a 31-3 record, she still leads the state in wins — Columbus Catholic’s Kayla Sproul has 30 pitching wins through this past weekend.

Though the past weekend wasn’t among the Comets’ most successful of the season, it was for the most part business as usual at the leadoff spot as Fiser went 9 of 15 in the four games. She leads the team with a .615 batting average.

Charles City will be back in action on Saturday (July 13) where they will host either Decorah or Waterloo West in the semifinals of the Class 4A-Region 6 bracket.

NORTH SCOTT 6, CHARLES CITY 5
CC AB R H BI NS AB R H BI
Lisabeth Fiser 4 0 1 0 T Robertson 4 1 2 2
Lydia Staudt 4 0 2 0 Brooke Kilburg 3 1 1 0
Rachel Chambers 4 0 2 0 Rachel Anderson 4 0 1 0
Ashlyn Hoeft 4 2 1 0 Sam Lee 3 0 0 0
Allie Cross 4 1 1 1 Ryann Cheek 4 1 1 0
Alex Litterer 4 1 2 0 Abby Moller 4 1 0 0
Kiki Connell 4 1 1 1 Ashlynn Shannon 4 0 2 0
Sami Heyer 4 0 0 0 Paige Westlin 4 1 1 0
Sadie Gebel 4 0 1 2 Kate Hayes 3 1 0 0
Emma Grimm 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 36 5 11 4 TOTALS 33 6 8 2
CHARLES CITY 000 400 01 — 5
NORTH SCOTT 002 020 02 — 6
LOB–CHARLES CITY 8, NORTH SCOTT 9.
ERR–Rachel Chambers (3), Lisabeth Fiser (2), Kate Hayes, Rachel Anderson. HBP–Kate Hayes. SACB–T Robertson.SB–Allie Cross.
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Sami Heyer 7.67 8 5 2 2 10 0
NORTH SCOTT
Ashlynn Shannon 8.00 11 4 4 0 6 0
PB–Ashlyn Hoeft, Rachel Anderson. SO–Rachel Chambers, Ashlyn Hoeft (2), Sami Heyer (2), Lydia Staudt, T Robertson, Kate Hayes (2), Ashlynn Shannon, Abby Moller (3), Rachel Anderson (2), Brooke Kilburg. BB–Sam Lee, Brooke Kilburg.

CHARLES CITY 9, OSKALOOSA 5
CC AB R H BI OSK AB R H BI
Lisabeth Fiser 4 1 3 3 Meghan Moorman 4 1 0 0
Lydia Staudt 4 1 3 1 Ashley Kindley 4 0 0 1
Rachel Chambers 3 1 1 0 Ava Vande Wall 3 0 1 1
Ashlyn Hoeft 3 1 1 3 Abby Braundmeier 2 0 0 0
Allie Cross 4 0 0 0 Kiara Bjornson 1 0 0 0
Alex Litterer 4 2 3 0 Maddie Haines 3 0 1 0
Kiki Connell 4 1 2 0 Sophia Dykstra 2 0 0 0
Sami Heyer 4 1 2 1 Olivia Gordon 1 0 0 0
Sadie Gebel 3 0 0 0 Taylor Wills 3 0 0 0
*Brooke Vance 0 1 0 0 Kaylee Johnson 3 2 1 0
Maleah Walker 3 2 1 0
TOTALS 33 9 15 8 TOTALS 29 5 4 2
CHARLES CITY 072 000 0 — 9
OSKALOOSA 003 200 x — 5
LOB–CHARLES CITY VARSITY 8, OSKALOOSA VARSITY 8. ERR–Rachel Chambers, Lisabeth Fiser, Allie Cross (4), Sadie Gebel, Taylor Wills. HR–Ashlyn Hoeft. HBP–Ava Vande Wall. SB–Alex Litterer, Lisabeth Fiser (2), Lydia Staudt (2).
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Sami Heyer 6.00 4 5 0 1 10 0
OSKALOOSA
Addison Gerard 6.00 15 9 2 2 0 1
PB–Ashlyn Hoeft (3), Meghan Moorman (2). SO–Sophia Dykstra (2), Abby Braundmeier, Maleah Walker, Olivia Gordon, Maddie Haines, Ava Vande Wall, Ashley Kindley (2), Taylor Wills. BB–Rachel Chambers, Ashlyn Hoeft, Abby Braundmeier.

PLEASANT VALLEY 7, CHARLES CITY 1
CC AB R H BI PV AB R H BI
Lisabeth Fiser 4 0 2 1 Emily Wood 4 3 2 0
Lydia Staudt 4 0 1 0 Sophia Lindquist 3 0 0 0
Rachel Chambers 4 0 0 0 Carli Spelhaug 4 2 2 2
Ashlyn Hoeft 2 0 1 0 Bell Luebken 4 0 1 1
Allie Cross 3 0 1 0 Peggy Klinger 4 0 1 1
Alex Litterer 2 0 1 0 Kaitlyn Drish 2 0 1 0
Kiki Connell 3 0 0 0 Jordyn Drish 0 0 0 0
Sami Heyer 3 0 2 0 Jessi Meyer 3 0 1 1
Sadie Gebel 3 0 1 0 Carly Lundry 2 0 1 0
*Brooke Vance 0 1 0 0 Christin Hartman 2 0 0 0
Mara McClimon 1 0 0 0
*Olivia Syverod 0 1 0 0
*Emily Yattoni 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 28 1 9 1 TOTALS 29 7 9 5
CHARLES CITY 000 000 1 — 1
PLEASANT VALLEY 104 200 x — 7
LOB–CHARLES CITY VARSITY 8, PLEASANT VALLEY VARSITY 7. ERR–Rachel Chambers, Sadie Gebel (2). HBP–Kaitlyn Drish. SACB–Alex Litterer, Sophia Lindquist. SB–Alex Litterer, Lisabeth Fiser, Reagan Hassel, Emily Wood (2).
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Sami Heyer 6.00 9 7 1 1 3 0
PLEASANT VALLEY
Christin Hartman 7.00 9 1 1 1 3 0
PB–Ashlyn Hoeft (3), Peggy Klinger. SO–Lydia Staudt (2),
Sadie Gebel, Mara McClimon, Sophia Lindquist, Jessi Meyer.
BB–Ashlyn Hoeft, Carly Lundry.

VALLEY 1, CHARLES CITY 0
VALLEY AB R H BI CC AB R H BI
Alex Honnold 3 0 1 0 Lisabeth Fiser 3 0 3 0
Hailey Etzel 3 1 1 0 Lydia Staudt 3 0 1 0
Maggie House 2 0 0 0 Rachel Chambers 3 0 0 0
Haley Gatica 3 0 1 0 Ashlyn Hoeft 3 0 0 0
Jasmine Spann 3 0 0 0 Allie Cross 2 0 0 0
Olivia Roush 3 0 0 0 Alex Litterer 3 0 0 0
Hannah Fry 3 0 0 0 Kiki Connell 3 0 0 0
Gianna Lara 2 0 0 0 Sami Heyer 2 0 0 0
Megan Decker 2 0 0 0 Sadie Gebel 3 0 1 0
TOTALS 24 1 3 0 TOTALS 25 0 5 0
VALLEY 100 000 00 — 1
CHARLES CITY 000 000 0x — 0
LOB–VALLEY 3, CHARLES CITY 6. ERR–Jasmine
Spann, Lisabeth Fiser. 2B–Alex Honnold, Lisabeth Fiser.
HBP–Allie Cross, Sami Heyer. SACB–Maggie House. SB–Hailey
Etzel, Lisabeth Fiser, Allie Cross.
VALLEY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Haley Gatica 2.00 0 0 0 0 2 0
Olivia Roush 5.00 5 0 0 0 3 0
CHARLES CITY
Sami Heyer 7.00 3 1 0 0 7 0
PB–Ashlyn Hoeft. SO–Maggie House, Hannah Fry, Olivia
Roush, Haley Gatica (2), Jasmine Spann, Megan Decker, Rachel
Chambers (2), Alex Litterer, Ashlyn Hoeft, Sami Heyer.