Go-Hawks stop Comets in district final, 6-5

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

WAVERLY — Dating back to when the two teams last faced each other in the regular season, the Waverly-Shell Rock Go-Hawks managed to put together back-to-back 4-run rallies against the Charles City Comets.

The first one was devastating for CC as it propelled the Go-Hawks to a stunning 9-8 victory in the rubber game in a three-game series.

The second one was troubling … but not the end of the world … or the season … or at least not yet.

In the Class 3A Substate 3 District 5 final Monday at Wartburg College’s Hertel Field, WSR took advantage of a throwing error followed by three straight walks before going up 4-0 after one.

In a type of game that maybe would have gotten away from them during last season or the season before that, Charles City managed to recover and eventually tie the game at 5.

But the Go-Hawks would end up scoring the final run of the game in a 6-5 final, advancing them to the substate championship Wednesday at Hertel Field against the winner of the West Delaware-vs.-Decorah district final.

For the Comets, the loss capped their overall mark at 17-12 in an interesting and competitive season that saw them sweep a “tripleheader” against Northeast Iowa Conference foe Waukon, and record wins over WSR, Decorah and New Hampton while they were ranked in their respective classes.

“I’m proud of the heart our guys showed after we were down,” Charles City head coach said Tyler Downing said while gesturing at the scoreboard that still displayed the runs per inning.

“After that first inning, we either won or tied them in most every inning after that while chipping into the lead,” Downing said. “Like today, these guys got better as the season went on.”

Charles City junior Cole Reams delivered another one of his stellar long-relief performances after taking over for battery mate Dylan Salinas with one out into the bottom of the first. Reams would go on to pitch the remaining 5 and 2/3 innings while yielding just 2 runs and giving his team a chance to claw back into it.

After Comet junior Jace Cajthaml took a pitch from Go-Hawk starter Kurby Vowels deep to right field that was played into a double, senior Theo Arndt — a left-handed hitter — went the other way himself for an RBI double down the left-field line to get Charles City on the board in the second.

Later in the fourth after Tait Arndt walked, Theo Arndt got hit by a pitch and JJ Ritter bunted runners over to third and second, Wyatt Stevenson managed to finally get the better of Vowels during an extended at-bat to hit a 2-RBI single up the middle.

“That was a great at-bat for Wyatt,” Downing said of his Comets pulling within 1 (4-3).

Waverly-Shell Rock added an insurance run in their half of the fourth, but the Comets tied the game when Colton Slinger doubled home a run before scoring himself when Salinas’ grounder ate up WSR’s shortstop with an in-between hop.

Go-Hawk sophomore Jeremy Chaplin drove home Carson Kallenberger with a RBI single in the bottom of the fifth for what would be the final run of the game.

Chaplin also had an RBI double during the 4-run first. Kallenberger was 3 for 3 with two doubles and 2 RBIs, and Luke Willis got the win after yielding no runs and one hit while striking out four in three innings of relief for the Go-Hawks (32-7).

Theo Arndt, who with Salinas will continue his career playing at Hertel Field as a member of the Wartburg baseball team, had two hits in his final sporting event as a Comet.

“They’re the first two guys in the five years I’ve been coaching (at Charles City) who will go on to play in college,” Downing said of Arndt and Salinas. “We had a great group of seniors. I’ve shown our younger guys how to play, how to practice and how to be great teammates.

“Not everyone can be the star or a CEO of a company, but we all have our jobs to do.”

WAVERLY-SHELL ROCK 6, CHARLES CITY 5

CHARLES CITY         AB  R  H BI  WAVERLY-SHELL ROCK   AB  R  H BI

Colton Slinger        3  1  1  1  Ryan Willis           4  0  0  0

Cole  Reams           3  0  0  0  Brady Leonard         4  1  1  1

Dylan Salinas         4  0  0  0  Payton Leonard        3  1  0  0

Jace  Cajthaml        3  1  1  0  Luke Willis           3  1  0  0

Tait Arndt            1  0  0  0  Kaden Dewey           2  1  0  1

Noah Schlader        1  1  0  0  Carson Kallenberger   3  1  3  2

Theo Arndt            2  1  2  1  Jeremy Chaplin        3  0  2  2

JJ Ritter             2  0  0  0  Carter Langreck       1  1  0  0

Wyatt  Stevenson      3  0  1  2  Connor Havlovic       1  0  0  0

Elliott Sinwell       3  1  1  0   Tyler Doehmann       0  0  0  0

TOTALS               25  5  6  4  TOTALS               24  6  6  6

CHARLES CITY                  010 220 0 — 5

WAVERLY-SHELL ROCK           400 110 x — 6

LOB–CHARLES CITY 4, WAVERLY-SHELL ROCK 7. ERR–Jace  Cajthaml, Carson Kallenberger (2), Kurby Vowels. 2B–Colton Slinger, Theo Arndt, Jace  Cajthaml, Carson Kallenberger (2), Jeremy Chaplin. HBP–Colton Slinger, Theo Arndt, Carter Langreck. SACB–JJ Ritter, Cole  Reams, Connor Havlovic. SB–Theo Arndt, Brady Leonard.

CHARLES CITY                    IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR

Dylan Salinas                  0.33    2    4    3    3    0    0

Cole  Reams                    5.67    4    2    2    2    4    0

WAVERLY-SHELL ROCK          

Kurby Vowels                   4.00    5    5    4    1    3    0

Luke Willis                    3.00    1    0    0    0    4    0

WP–Luke Willis. SO–Noah Schlader, Colton Slinger, JJ Ritter (2), Jace  Cajthaml, Wyatt  Stevenson (2), Brady Leonard, Ryan Willis (2), Kaden Dewey. BB–Tait Arndt, Payton Leonard, Carter Langreck, Tyler Doehmann, Luke Willis, Kaden Dewey.