Indians flash leather while sweeping Comets in NEIC baseball doubleheader

By John Burbridge 

sports@charlescitypress.com 

CHARLES CITY — The outcome of many baseball games often comes down to “give and take” — i.e. how many extra outs a team gives another and/or how many hits a team takes away from another.

During the second game of Tuesday’s Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheader, the visiting Waukon Indians took away a pair of hits from the Charles City Comets in the bottom of the sixth inning amid a bases-loaded jam that prevented any runs from crossing the plate while leaving three base runners stranded.

That in part helped the Indians sweep the twin bill while keeping the Comets winless.

With Waukon nursing a 4-1 lead, Comet junior Holden McInroy led off drawing a base on balls followed by Sawyer Hanson getting hit by a pitch and Cameron Littleton drawing another BB to load the bases with no outs.

The next man up, junior Luke Jacobs, hit a hot low liner headed for right field that was snared by an all-out diving catch by Indian first baseman Zach Perkins, preventing at least 2 runs from scoring — maybe 3 as the Comets had some speed on the bases and Jacobs’s drive would have likely rolled further away from Waukon’s right fielder into the foul-territory corner of Comet Field.

Then the next Comet up, sophomore Zachary Schoeck, smoked a pitch from Waukon reliever Cayle Christensen only to have shortstop Colton O’Neill go vertical with the webbing of his glove giving him enough height to rob another Comet of a base hit and multiple RBIs.

Christensen struck out the next Comet batter to close the inning. Eventually, the Indians hung on to win by the aforementioned score and cap the sweep while improving to 8-12 overall and 5-7 in the NEIC. It was the second time this season that the Indians swept the Comets in a DH.

Charles City got another strong performance from sophomore starting pitcher Noah White, who — coming off a 10-strikeout outing against Turkey Valley the Friday before — yielded seven hits and 3 earned runs while striking out six and walking two in seven innings.

White’s counterpart, freshman Blayzen Stewart, got the win after yielding two hits and 1 earned run in five innings. Comet freshman Ethan Hadley drove in his team’s lone run with a single off Stewart in the second inning.

Like the DH before against Waukon, and like several other DH’s against NEIC foes, the Comets bounced back from a one-sided loss in the first game with a more competitive effort in the second game.

Nonetheless, the Comets remained winless (0-18, 0-11) going into Friday’s NEIC home doubleheader against Crestwood.

Waukon won the first game 18-1 in a contest stopped after five full innings. Only 12 of those 18 runs were earned as this was a case where the Comets “gave” the Indians several extra outs leading to big-run rallies.

O’Neill went the shortened distance while yielding six hits and 1 earned run while striking out 12 and walking one.