Lions rally past Comets, 14-4, in baseball opener

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CLEAR LAKE — It’s a risky feat to tame a lion plucked out of the wild.

But it was the wildness of the Comets that doomed them against the Lions during the Charles City-at-Clear Lake high school baseball season opener on Monday as the home team won, 14-4, in a game stopped short of six full innings.

Through three full innings, the Comets were cruising along during a brisk-moving game during a rather brisk, chilly evening.

With Tait Arndt’s bloop single into shallow left-center field scoring Cole Reams, then Arndt later scoring himself on a RBI single from Kaden Barry, the Comets took a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth.

Until then, Charles City senior starter Carter Johanningmeier had yet to yield a hit. The bottom of the fourth started out well for the Comets when Johanningmeier raced off the mound to field a swinging bunt from Andrew Formanek and threw him out by a half step.

But the Lions would go on to send 12 men to the plate that inning with a string of eight straight reaching safely on way to scoring 7 runs.

The Lions went on to tack on 3 more runs in the fifth before scoring 4 more in the sixth as Austin Warnke’s bases-loaded walk ended the game while initiating the 10-run rule.

Lion senior Chase Stuver came in as a pinch hitter in the fourth inning and drove in 2 runs with an opposite-field single — Stuver bats left-handed — to tie the game in the fourth. Stuver would stay in the game to get two more hits including a double.

AJ Stevenson also had three hits and a double for the Lions.

Arndt had two hits, and Comet senior lead-off hitter Colton Slinger — fresh off helping Charles City place seventh in the 4-by-400 relay at the State Track and Field Championships this past weekend — also had two hits.

Overall, Clear Lake had 9 hits to Charles City’s 7. But the Lions were able to capitalize on 14 walks issued by five Comet pitchers.

Charles City will try to rebound in its next game against Mason City Wednesday at Roosevelt Field. The Comets will host Newman Catholic on Thursday and Waukon on Friday with the latter being a doubleheader. Tentatively, both home games are scheduled to be played at Sportsmen’s Park but — surprise, surprise — may need to be relocated due to imminent flooding caused by recent and pending weather.

CLEAR LAKE 14, CHARLES CITY 4 (6 inn.)
CC AB R H BI CL AB R H BI
Colton Slinger 4 0 2 0 Erik McHenry 3 3 2 1
Atticus Parrott 3 0 0 0 Mac Adams 1 3 0 1
Cole Reams 3 1 1 0 Mitchell Raber 1 2 0 1
Jace Cajthaml 3 1 1 0 AJ Stevenson 5 0 3 3
Tait Arndt 3 1 2 1 Andrew Formanek 3 0 0 3
Wyatt Stevenson3 0 0 0 Carson Krefft 3 1 0 0
Kaden Barry 2 1 1 1 Austin Warnke 2 1 1 1
C. Johanningmeier 2 0 0 0 Feuerbach 3 1 0 0
Ian Collins 2 0 0 0 Jacob Monson 1 0 0 0
Chase Stuver 3 2 3 2
*Eric Ritter 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 25 4 7 2 TOTALS 25 14 9 12
CHARLES CITY 000 202 — 4
CLEAR LAKE 000 734 — 14
LOB–CHARLES CITY 6, CLEAR LAKE 11. ERR–Jace Cajthaml, IanCollins, Wyatt Stevenson, PJ Feuerbach, Erik McHenry.2B–Chase Stuver, AJ Stevenson. HBP–PJ Feuerbach, Erik McHenry. SB–Cole Reams, Austin Warnke.
Pitching Summary
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Carter Johanningmeier 3.33 3 5 4 6 1 0
Wyatt Stevenson 0.00 1 2 2 3 0 0
Cole Reams 0.67 0 0 0 1 2 0
Atticus Parrott 1.33 4 5 4 1 0 0
Kaden Barry 0.00 1 2 2 3 0 0
CLEAR LAKE
Mac Adams 5.67 7 4 4 3 6 0
0.33 0 0 0 0 0 0

PB–PJ Feuerbach. WP–Kaden Barry, Mac Adams (2).
BALK–Carter Johanningmeier. SO–Kaden Barry, Ian Collins
(2), Atticus Parrott, Cole Reams (2), PJ Feuerbach, Carson
Krefft, Erik McHenry. BB–Kaden Barry, Carter
Johanningmeier, Ian Collins, Mitchell Raber (4), Austin
Warnke (2), Andrew Formanek (2), Mac Adams (4), Carson
Krefft, Erik McHenry.