Hitting 400 — Comet softball coach reaches milestone win

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
FOREST CITY — The Charles City Comets softball team is hitting well over .400 this season.

So it’s about time its head coach has finally gotten with the program.

Charles City’s three-inning 14-0 vicoty over Forest City on Tuesday represented Brian Bohlen’s 400th win while leading the team.

“It seems like I just started coaching yesterday,” said Bohlen, who is actually amid his 17th year at the helm.
“You’re only allowed a maximum of 40 games a season, so you need some great players and teams to get this many wins.”

The 400th career win for Bohlen was also the 13th win of the season for the undefeated Comets, who are coming off three-straight State Softball Championships appearances and were ranked No. 4 in Class 4A by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union going into this season.

Against the Indians, the Comets jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Ashlyn Hoeft — returning to the starting lineup — drove a pitch from Forest City starter Natalie Moore over the left-field fence for her first homer of the season. Hoeft had drove the pitch before just as far but left of the left-field foul pole.

With leadoff hitter Liz Fiser recording three hits, fellow slap-hitters Lydia Staudt and Alex Litterer recording two hits each, and several defensive miscues from the Indians, the Comets rallied for 6 runs in the second and 5 runs in the third on way to shortening the game ahead of threatening weather.

Though the Comets are hitting well (.436 going into Tuesday’s game), the same can’t be said about their opponents, who were collectively hitting .085 — an average even worse than the career average of Cubs’ all-star pitcher but not-such-a-star hitter Jon Lester.

Again, that’s going into Tuesday’s game, and it’s not going to get any better after three perfect innings from Comet ace Sami Heyer, who stuck out seven.

Comet opponents are hitting less than .050 against Heyer this season.

As for hitting 500 career coaching wins or more, Bohlen said he’s going to let the numbers take care of themselves.
“I love coaching softball, and I don’t see me leaving it anytime soon,” he said.

The Comets will be back in action Wednesday when they host Northeast Iowa Conference rival New Hampton in doubleheader at Sportsmen’s Park.