Comets win NEIC softball title with sweep of Vikings

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Adding 2 more runs to their 3-0 lead obtained four days earlier against the Decorah Vikings in the suspended second game of a doubleheader, the Charles City Comets clinched the Northeast Iowa Conference softball title on Monday.

But according to Comets head coach Brian Bohlen, the NEIC title was likely determined much earlier in the season.

“We figured the doubleheader against Waverly-Shell Rock would end up deciding things,” Bohlen said of the Comets’ May 30th sweep of the Go-Hawks in Waverly.

“We had four games against Crestwood and Waverly at the start of the season,” Bohlen said. “We took three of those games against those tough programs, so that was a great start.”

But the Comets would later lose the third rubber game against Cadets, which placed the latter team atop the conference — until Crestwood lost a doubleheader against Waverly-Shell Rock on June 27.

That put the Comets in “the catbird seat” as the late, great Brooklyn Dodgers radio announcer Red Barber would say as they only needed to hold on for four more innings to complete the sweep and seize the hardware.

In the fifth inning, Ciana Sonberg hit her fifth homer of the year with a 250-foot shot over the left-field fence to increase Charles City’s lead to 4-0.

Then in the sixth, left-handed slap hitter Lisabeth Fiser was able to place a looper over a drawn-in infield to drive in what would be the final run in a 5-0 final.

Both Sonberg and Fiser had two hits and 2 RBIs for the game.

Junior pitcher Tayler Schmidt improved her record to 8-1 after scattering six hits in a complete-game shutout victory.

The Comets closed the regular season at 30-6 and 16-2 in the NEIC — Crestwood’s conference record is 15-3.

Next up is the Class 4A-Region 4 bracket tournament. With a first-round bye, the Comets will host the winner of the Independence-vs.-Wahlert Catholic first-round game at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“First of all, we’re going to give them a day off,” Bohlen said a day before the Fourth of July. “Then we’re going to use some of our younger pitchers to throw some live batting practice.

“We’re going to work on making more solid contact.”

For the most part, the Comets have been making good contact throughout the season with a team batting average of .390 and a team slugging percentage of .573.

Yet Bohlen says he doesn’t pay too much attention to statistics. For instance, when it was mentioned that his sophomore ace Sami Heyer is a 20-game winner (20-5), Bohlen said that was news to him.

“But I do know she’s leading (Class) 4A pitchers in strikeouts,” Bohlen said of Heyer’s 249 K total. “It’s not a school record … Charles City has had history of great softball pitchers.”