Comets go 0-2 while hosting Jerry Newton Softball Classic; to host WSR in Tuesday DH

John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — One of many if not too many unwritten rules in softball/baseball is the dictum of not making the first or third out at third base.

The Clarksville Indians apparently didn’t get that unwritten memo while going 2-0 with a pair of shortened victories at the annual Jerry Newton Softball Classic hosted by Charles City on Saturday.

While others may have been more content with a stand-up double, Clarksville didn’t meet a pending triple it didn’t like. Nor did the Tribe refrain from taking an extra base, sometimes not even stopping at third base despite the ball having since been thrown back to the infield … such daring exploits repeatedly caught opponents off guard during the invite.

While taking advantage of extra bases as well as extra outs, Clarksville rallied with big innings — 6 runs in the third and 5 runs in the fourth — while defeating Columbus Catholic 12-0 in a game stopped after the Sailors failed to score in their half of the fourTH.

In the subsequent game against the hosting Comets, Clarksville scored 9 runs in the third and 3 more in the fifth on the way to a 12-2 victory stopped after five.

Leadoff hitter Cailyn Hardy had three hits and 3 RBIs, and Sierra Vance yielded just one hit and 1 earned run while striking out six against the Comets.

A returning ace from Clarksville’s Softball State Championships qualifying team from last season, Vance also was the winning pitcher in the previous win against Columbus Catholic.

In the first game of Classic, Columbus Catholic defeated the Comets 8-6 after the Sailors rallied for 5 runs in the seventh.

Lydia Staudt, Emerson Bohlen, Rachel Chambers and Keely Collins each had two hits for the Comets against the Sailors.

On Friday, the Comets hosted Cedar Falls for their season home-opener and lost 3-1.

Charles City’s lone run came on Chambers’s solo home run to center field in the bottom of the fourth, which tied the game at 1-1.

It was Chambers’s first homer of the season, and if she can string together some more dingers, it might garner state-wide attention. After hitting 16 home runs her freshman season and a team-record 19 last season, Chambers is 24 … or make that 23 homers away from the all-time state record despite missing her entire sophomore season due to knee surgery.

Home runs are nice, but the Comets-Tigers game was destined to be decided by defensive prowess.

While Charles City starter Natalie White got some defensive help while getting out of several jams — one involved catcher Alex Wohlers diving all-out to erase a base-runner in a run-down — the Tigers came up with the play-of-the-game while helping Cyrah Rasmussen record the complete-game victory.

In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Lauren Staudt got on with an infield single. Collins followed with a liner that landed in right-center field. Staudt held up a bit to make sure the ball wasn’t going to be caught on the fly before rounding second base and heading for third.

Tiger center fielder Lauren Ferguson fielded the ball on one hop, and then with a text-book crow-hop throw, fired the ball to third just as Staudt was going into her slide.

It was an excellent throw, but the Javy Baez–like catch-and-tag from Tiger third baseman Lauren Sandvold erasing Staudt was just as impressive.

Charles City (1-3) will host Waverly-Shell Rock on Tuesday in a Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheader starting at 5:30 p.m.