Comets win 12-3 playing Turkey Valley ‘house rules’

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
JACKSON JUNCTION — The Charles City Comets were scheduled to host the Turkey Valley Trojans on Wednesday at Sportsmen’s Park.

But anyone following the weather lately with a sense of local history knew that wasn’t going to happen.

So the Comets’ “home game” was moved to Jackson Junction. But even though the Trojans were technically the road team, they batted in the latter half of the innings like they were the hosts.

I guess that’s what you call “house rules”.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Comet head coach Tyler Downing said after his team won its fourth straight in a 12-3 final while improving to 4-2 for the season.

“They were able to get the field ready for us so we were able to get the game in,” Downing said, “and it was non-conference game.”

After spotting the Trojans a 1-0 lead through two innings, the Comets rallied for 4 runs in the third and 3 runs each in the fourth and fifth.

Comet senior Jace Cajthaml was 2 for 4 with 4 RBIs — 3 of those runs driven in came from a bases-loaded double in the fourth inning.

Junior Tait Arndt also drove in 4 runs, half of which came from an opposite-field 2-run home run in the seventh inning. It was the team’s first home run of the season and the first of Arndt’s varsity career.

Lead-off hitter Colton Slinger scored twice and reached base four times for the Comets — but it came with a price. In addition to hitting a single and drawing a walk, Slinger was hit by pitch twice.

Slinger also stole four bases.

The Comets used five pitchers during the win — Wyatt Stevenson, Cajthaml, JJ Ritter, Carter Johanningmeier and Atticus Parrott.

“With the pitch-count rules, it’s nice to have a lot of guys you can put out there,” Downing said. “This was Jace (Cajthaml) and JJ’s (Ritter) first time pitching this year, and they did well.

“We just need them to throw strikes. We’ve got the defense and offense to back them up.”

After an off day on Thursday, the Comets will travel to Oelwein on Friday to take on the Huskies in a Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheader.

Simon Schmitt had two solo home runs for Turkey Valley (0-7).

CHARLES CITY 12, TURKEY VALLEY 3
CC AB R H BI TV AB R H BI
Colton Slinger 1 2 1 0 Elliott Dietzenbach 4 0 0 0
Ryan Zuspan 1 1 0 0 Simon Schmitt 4 2 2 2
JJ Ritter 3 2 0 1 Garrett Kurtenbach 3 0 1 0
Cole Reams 1 3 0 0 Carter Reicks 2 0 0 0
Dawson Hinders0 1 0 0 Seth Huinker 2 0 0 0
Jace Cajthaml4 0 2 4 K. Leuenberger 3 0 0 0
Tait Arndt 4 2 1 4 Kalvin Langreck 2 1 1 0
Elliott Sinwell 5 0 1 0 Eli Nymeyer 1 0 0 0
Wyatt Stevenson2 0 0 0 Ethan Leibold 2 0 0 0
C. Johanningmeier 0 0 0 0 C. Busta 2 0 0 0
Atticus Parrott 3 0 1 1
Ian Collins 2 1 0 0
TOTALS 26 12 6 10 TOTALS 25 3 4 2
CHARLES CITY 004 330 2 — 12
TURKEY VALLEY 010 010 1 — 3
LOB–CHARLES CITY 9, TURKEY VALLEY 8. ERR–KannonLeuenberger (2), Carson Busta. 2B–Jace Cajthaml. HR–TaitArndt, Simon Schmitt (2). HBP–Colton Slinger (2), TaitArndt, Cole Reams, Ethan Leibold, Carson Busta. SB–ColtonSlinger (4), Elliott Sinwell, Ryan Zuspan, Ian Collins,Cole Reams (2).
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Wyatt Stevenson 1.67 1 1 1 1 2 0
Jace Cajthaml 1.00 0 0 0 3 1 0
JJ Ritter 1.33 0 0 0 0 1 0
Carter Johanningmeier 2.00 2 1 1 1 3 1
Atticus Parrott 1.00 1 1 1 0 2 1
TURKEY VALLEY
Carter Reicks 3.00 3 6 5 6 1 0
Eli Nymeyer 2.67 2 4 4 5 0 0
Sam Kout 1.33 1 2 2 1 1 1
PB–Atticus Parrott, Kannon Leuenberger (4). WP–Wyatt Stevenson, Eli Nymeyer. SO–JJ Ritter, Ryan Zuspan, CarterReicks, Garrett Kurtenbach (2), Seth Huinker (2), EthanLeibold, Simon Schmitt, Carson Busta (2). BB–ColtonSlinger, JJ Ritter (2), Carter Johanningmeier, Jace Cajthaml, Ian Collins (2), Dawson Hinders, Wyatt Stevenson, Atticus Parrott, Cole Reams (2), Eli Nymeyer (2), Garrett Kurtenbach, Kannon Leuenberger, Kalvin Langreck.