Comets beat state-ranked Bearcats in Newton Softball Classic finale

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — The pressure was on Ciana Sonberg before she even stepped into batter’s box.

“I was supposed to suicide squeeze the runner in when I came up to bat,” said Charles City junior Sonberg of the Comets’ plan of attack during an international tiebreaker inning against state-ranked North Butler in the final game of the Jerry Newton Classic, Saturday at Sportsmen’s Park.

“But we couldn’t get the runner over to third, so the squeeze was off,” Sonberg said.

And so was the pressure … sort of. All Sonberg had to do now was out-battle Bearcat first-team all-state pitcher Taylor Graven with the game on the line.

Behind in the count one ball to two strikes, Sonberg managed to foul off several tough offerings to stay alive. You could already consider it a “quality at-bat” for Sonberg before she made it a “winning at-bat” when she finally got a pitch she could handle and drove it into centerfield. Shantel VanHauen, the runner spotted at second base to start the bottom half of the seventh, came around to score for the 2-1 final.

VanHauen earlier had scored the first run of the game on a suicide squeeze bunt by Sami Heyer in the fifth inning.

“I just had to relax and swing through the zone,” said Sonberg, who had two of the six hits the Comet got off Graven.

Winning pitcher Heyer was credited with a no-hitter after striking out 14 and walking one. North Butler leadoff hitter Kayla Siemens was initially credited with a single when the bunt she put down with two runners aboard and no outs in the top of the sixth caused enough confusion with Charles City’s infield that all Bearcats ended up being safe to load the bases.

North Butler eventually scored to tie the game on Nicole Heeren’s infield out, but that was it as Heyer managed to strike out Graven for the final out of the inning.

For the Comets (12-2), it was their third win of the day as they previously defeated Saint Ansgar (8-5) and Belmond-Klemme (15-3).

Though it didn’t say so on the “Classic’s” flier that listed tentative starting times for the matchups, the Comet-vs.-Bearcats finale was the main event.

“We knew we were going up against a very good team at the end of the day,” Charles City head coach Brian Bohlen said of the Bearcats, who are ranked No. 4 in the Class 1A in the latest rankings released by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. “It turned out to be a good game that everyone thought it would.”

The Comets have yet to crack into the IGHSAA rankings this season, but they have at least caught the attention of some of their rivals.

“Winning twice at Waverly-Shell Rock was big for us,” Sonberg said of the Comets’ doubleheader sweep of the Go-Hawks last week. “I think this team can go far this year.”

Coming off a 1-1 performance at a mini-tournament at North Fayette Valley on Friday, the Comets faced St. Ansgar in their first game during Saturday’s Classic.

The Comets had taken a 5-1 lead through three innings, but the Saints managed to tie the game after scoring 2 runs in the top halves of the fourth and sixth innings.

With many of their starters removed in favor of reserves, the Comets scored 3 runs in the bottom half of the sixth and were declared winners when the game exceeded the tournament’s time limit.

Bailey Mitchell was 3 for 3 with two doubles and 4 RBIs for the Comets in their win over the Saints.

In the subsequent victory over Belmond-Klemme, Comet senior Sara Martin hit her fifth homer of the year but is still looking for first windshield smashup — it’s going to happen if people continue to park beyond the outfield fence at Sportsmen’s — as her 2-run shot in the second inning managed to miss several vehicles while landing between them.

Martin also had a base-loaded double good for 3 RBIs in the fourth inning to end the game.

Sonberg, VanHauen, Payton Reams and Lisabeth Fiser all had two hits in the shortened win over B-K.

Jerry Newton Classic
June 3
At Sportsmen’s Park
NORTH BUTLER VARSITY (1) AT CHARLES CITY VARSITY (2)
NORTH BUTLER VARSITY AB R H BI CHARLES CITY VARSITY AB R H BI
Kayla Siemens 3 0 0 0 Payton Reams 3 0 0 0
Marcy Jacobs 3 0 0 0 Kelby Katcher 3 0 1 0
Nicole Heeren 3 0 0 1 Tayler Schmidt 3 0 0 0
Taylor Graven 2 0 0 0 Sara Martin 3 0 0 0
Abbie Wix 3 0 0 0 Shantel Vanhauen 3 2 1 0
Hallie Testroet 3 0 0 0 Bailey Mitchell 2 0 0 0
Madi Pleas 3 0 0 0 Madeline Peters 1 0 0 0
Alexis Stirling 1 0 0 0 Ciana Sonberg 3 0 2 1
M Clipperton 0 1 0 0 Sami Heyer 2 0 1 1
Morgan Arjes 1 0 0 0 Lisabeth Fiser 2 0 1 0
TOTALS 22 1 0 1 TOTALS 25 2 6 2
NORTH BUTLER VARSITY 000 001 0 — 1
CHARLES CITY VARSITY 000 010 1 — 2
LOB–NORTH BUTLER VARSITY 4, CHARLES CITY VARSITY 5.
ERR–Taylor Graven. HBP–Morgan Arjes, Taylor Graven. SB– .
NORTH BUTLER VARSITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Taylor Graven (L) 6.33 6 1 1 0 11 0
CHARLES CITY VARSITY
Sami Heyer (W) 7.00 0 1 1 1 14 0
SO–Nicole Heeren (2), Marcy Jacobs (3), Madi Pleas (2),
Abbie Wix (2), Alexis Stirling, Kayla Siemens (2), Taylor
Graven (2), Sami Heyer, Payton Reams (2), Bailey Mitchell,
Sara Martin (3), Tayler Schmidt (2), Kelby Katcher, Shantel
Vanhauen. BB–Alexis Stirling.

BELMOND-KLEMME VARSITY (3) AT CHARLES CITY VARSITY (15)
BELMOND-KLEMME VARSI AB R H BI CHARLES CITY VARSITY AB R H BI
Hailey Barrus 3 1 1 0 Payton Reams 3 2 2 0
Taylor Grissom 2 0 1 0 Kelby Katcher 3 1 1 0
Ryann Sander 2 1 1 1 Tayler Schmidt 2 3 1 1
Danielle Jenison 1 0 0 0 Sara Martin 2 3 2 5
Beminia 2 0 1 0 Shantel Vanhauen 2 2 2 0
Vada Negrete 2 0 0 1 Bailey Mitchell 1 0 0 0
A Mcmurray 2 0 1 1 Emma Grimm 0 1 0 0
A Parker 2 0 0 0 Ciana Sonberg 3 0 2 3
M Barnes 1 0 0 0 Madeline Peters 3 0 1 1
Lisabeth Fiser 3 1 2 1
*Carly Stevenson 0 1 0 0
*Kiki Connell 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 17 3 5 3 TOTALS 22 15 13 11
BELMOND-KLEMME VARSITY 200 1 — 3
CHARLES CITY VARSITY 462 3 — 15
LOB–BELMOND-KLEMME VARSITY 4, CHARLES CITY VARSITY 6.
ERR–Tayler Schmidt. 2B–A Mcmurray, Ryann Sander, Taylor
Grissom, Sara Martin, Ciana Sonberg. HR–Sara Martin. HBP–M
Barnes, Danielle Jenison, Bailey Mitchell. SB–Lisabeth
Fiser (2), Emma Grimm, Payton Reams (3), Tayler Schmidt,
Ciana Sonberg, Shantel Vanhauen (2).
BELMOND-KLEMME VARSITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Beminia (L) 3.33 13 15 15 8 2 1
CHARLES CITY VARSITY
Alex Litterer (W) 4.00 5 3 2 0 6 0
PB–M Barnes (7), Hailey Barrus (3). WP–Alex Litterer.
SO–A Parker, M Barnes, A Mcmurray, Danielle Jenison, Taylor
Grissom, Beminia, Kelby Katcher (2). BB–Payton Reams,
Bailey Mitchell, Sara Martin (2), Tayler Schmidt (2), Kelby
Katcher, Shantel Vanhauen.

ST. ANSGAR VARSITY (5) AT CHARLES CITY VARSITY (8)
ST. ANSGAR VARSITY AB R H BI CHARLES CITY VARSITY AB R H BI
Claire Groth 4 0 1 1 Payton Reams 3 1 0 0
Caitlyn Juhl 4 0 2 0 Sami Heyer 1 0 0 0
Lily Walk 4 1 0 0 Kelby Katcher 2 0 0 1
Tara Kramer 3 0 0 0 Cora Crooks 1 1 1 1
Jadyn Anderson 3 0 1 0 Tayler Schmidt 3 0 0 0
Holbrook Schutjer 1 0 1 1 Alex Litterer 0 1 0 0
Tanyon Schutjer 2 1 0 0 Dani Reetz 0 1 0 0
M Jenkins 3 2 1 0 Sara Martin 2 1 0 0
M Hemann 2 1 0 0 Carly Stevenson 1 0 0 0
Shantel Vanhauen 1 1 1 0
Bailey Mitchell 3 1 3 4
Ciana Sonberg 2 1 2 0
Madeline Peters 3 0 1 2
Lisabeth Fiser 3 0 1 0
TOTALS 26 5 6 2 TOTALS 25 8 9 8
ST. ANSGAR VARSITY 100 202 — 5
CHARLES CITY VARSITY 032 003 — 8
LOB–ST. ANSGAR VARSITY 8, CHARLES CITY VARSITY 8.
ERR–Caitlyn Juhl, Madeline Peters, Bailey Mitchell, Shantel
Vanhauen. 2B–Cora Crooks, Bailey Mitchell (2). SB–Claire
Groth, Alex Litterer, Dani Reetz, Payton Reams, Ciana
Sonberg.
ST. ANSGAR VARSITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
H Anderson (L) 5.67 9 8 5 8 3 0
CHARLES CITY VARSITY
Tayler Schmidt (W) 6.00 6 5 2 5 5 0
PB–Jadyn Anderson (2), Kelby Katcher (4). WP–H Anderson,
Tayler Schmidt. SO–M Hemann, Tara Kramer (3), Lily Walk,
Carly Stevenson, Kelby Katcher (2). BB–M Hemann, Tara
Kramer, Tanyon Schutjer, Holbrook Schutjer (2), Alex
Litterer, Dani Reetz, Bailey Mitchell, Sara Martin, Kelby
Katcher, Ciana Sonberg, Shantel Vanhauen (2).