Bohlen’s walk-off double lifts Comets in 3-2 opening-day win over Bulldogs
Charles City’s Brennan Schmidt (No. 11) gets a jubilant welcome after crossing the plate for the winning run during Charles City’s 3-2 season-opening win over the Algona Bulldogs on Tuesday. Schmidt was chased home by Cael Bohlen’s walk-off 2-run double.
By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — Cael Bohlen’s bases-loaded double with one out chased home the tying and winning runs for Charles City resulting in a 3-2 victory during its baseball season-opener against Algona on Tuesday.
The Comets were trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning before Kayden Blunt got them on the board with a solo home run that bounced off the top of the fence in left-center field.
Junior southpaw Lincoln Joslin picked up the win after relieving Brennan Schmidt, who re-entered the lineup in the bottom of the seventh and scored the winning run after drawing a walk.
Joslin got into a little trouble in the top half of the seventh as the Bulldogs threatened with runners on second and third base. But he turned the threat away by striking out an Algona batter for the third out.
The Comets’ offense struggled in the early going before coming to life in the final two innings.
“We struck out far too many times today,” Charles City head coach Tyler Downing said, “but we were able to work to get people on base (in the seventh inning) to pull it through.”
Reed Peters had two hits for the Comets.
Iowa remains the only state in the union that has its baseball (and softball) seasons during the summer. Nonetheless, the May 17th opener is fairly early by the state’s standards — especially with many teams bereft of their top athletes in the case of state-qualifiers in track and golf, and soccer players just entering postseason play.
The Comets, however, are only missing one key varsity returner — all-conference pitcher Tino Tamayo who is a state-qualifier in the shot put.
* On Wednesday, Charles City traveled to Mason City and lost to the River Hawks 12-2.
Mason City rallied for 7 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to end the game.
River Hawk senior Carter Thomas had two hits including a triple, and struck out 16 while yielding three hits and three walks for the six-inning complete-game victory.
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