Comets roll over Indians, Lions at softball invite

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

MASON CITY — Shade was at a premium during Saturday’s sweltering Joe Campbell Softball Invitational hosted by Mason City High School.

Where ever a tree or structure cast a shadow, there were a group of occupied camping chairs staking claim to their spots.

There was even a treeline behind the outfield fence of the complex’s North Field that several spectators used for refuge from the sun. And it wasn’t a bad vantage if you didn’t mind intermittent attacks from flies with teeth and being shelled repeatedly from the top third of Charles City’s lineup.

Right when several fans were digging through the deep foliage to recover a solo home run hit by Comet senior Ciana Sonberg in the fourth inning of Charles City’s matchup against Clear Lake, the shout of “incoming!” was directed at the retrievers as another solo shot, this one hit by Tayler Schmidt on the next pitch, was about to land in the same spot.

For Sonberg and Schmidt, the homers were their second hits of the game as the Comets went on to defeat the Lions 10-0 in five innings.

Junior Sami Heyer picked up her 16th win of the season while striking out 11 and yielding just one hit.

Earlier, the Class 4A No. 1-ranked Comets defeated Forest City, 9-2, in a game that was stopped short of seven innings due to a time limit.

Schmidt picked up her fourth win of the season after giving up 2 runs in four innings.

With runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the fifth, Alex Litterer was called on to relieve Schmidt and managed to get out of the inning without allowing any runs and then pitched a scoreless sixth inning before the game was called.

Sonberg had two hits and a RBI, leadoff hitter Lisabeth Fiser had two hits and scored twice, and Schmidt doubled in a run for the Comets against the Indians.

Comet junior Cora Crooks had three hits for the day for the Comets, who improved to 22-2 for the year.

With Friday’s 5-1 win over Algona, the Comets have won three straight after losing to Waverly-Shell Rock on Thursday.

Charles City will host Northeast Iowa Conference rival Waukon on Monday at Sportsmen’s Park with the varsity game starting at approximately 6:30 p.m.