Comets one out short of sweeping DH from Chickasaws

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
NEW HAMPTON — After being roughed up and bounced from the mound in the first inning of last Friday’s game against Waverly-Shell Rock, Charles City junior southpaw Elliott Sinwell bounced back with a stellar performance in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against New Hampton.

In his best outing of the season, Sinwell was touched for just three hits and 1 earned run in five innings before Cole Reams pitched two scoreless innings of relief to cap a 2-1 Comet win.

In the second game, Charles City got another strong starting performance from senior right-hander Carter Johanningmeier, who pitched four-and-two-thirds innings while yielding 2 earned runs. Again, Reams was called in for relief and picked up where he left off in the first game as he for the most part held the Chickasaws in check.

But one out away from completing a DH sweep over the Class 2A No. 7-ranked Chickasaws, Max Babcock drilled a solo home run over the left field fence to tie the game at 3-3 and send it into extra innings.

Reams stayed in the game and continued to pitch well, but with the bases loaded with one out in the 10th inning, New Hampton senior Brayden Anderson attempted a suicide squeeze bunt that looked like it was going to end in disaster for the Chickasaws as it was popped up with all the runners moving.

However, the popped up bunt found an open spot to land untouched in the infield just left of the pitcher’s mound to send the game-winning run home in an extra-inning 4-3 final.

The split adjusted New Hampton’s overall record to 25-5 while capping their Northeast Iowa Conference record at 14-4. The Chickasaws were vying with Waverly-Shell Rock for the NEIC championship, but needed help from Oelwein, which was playing the Go-Hawks in a DH on Tuesday.

Charles City fell to 12-15 and 11-7.

In the first game, Comet leadoff hitter Colton Slinger was 2 for 4 and drove in the first run of the game. Slinger was hitless in the second game, but made two outstanding catches — one running and sliding, the other running and leaping — while patrolling left field.

Tait Arndt had four hits on the night with three coming in the second game for the Comets, who will host Saint Ansgar on Wednesday.

Babcock was 5 of 5 and got the win after pitching two innings of shutout relief in the second game for the Chickasaws.

Game One
CHARLES CITY 2, NEW HAMPTON 1
CC AB R H BI NH AB R H BI
Colton Slinger 4 0 2 1 Mason Cleveland 3 1 2 0
JJ Ritter 3 0 0 0 Ryan Anderson 3 0 0 0
Cole Reams 4 0 0 1 Wyatt Stochl 3 0 0 1
Jace Cajthaml 2 0 0 0 Max Babcock 3 0 0 0
Tait Arndt 3 0 1 0 Hunter Pesek 2 0 0 0
Elliott Sinwell 3 0 1 0 Keegan Kane 3 0 1 0
Wyatt Stevenson 3 0 1 0 Connor Hackman 1 0 0 0
Atticus Parrott 3 1 2 0 Max Schwickerath 2 0 0 0
Ian Collins 3 1 0 0 Austin Hemann 1 0 0 0
Brayden Anderson 2 0 0 0
TOTALS 28 2 7 2 TOTALS 23 1 3 1
CHARLES CITY 001 010 0 — 2
NEW HAMPTON 000 001 0 — 1
LOB–CHARLES CITY 7, NE W HAMPTON 4. ERR–Connor Hackman (2).
2B–Mason Cleveland. 3B–Colton Slinger. HBP–Hunter Pesek.
SB–Connor Hackman.
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Elliott Sinwell 5.00 3 1 1 1 2 0
Cole Reams 2.00 0 0 0 1 0 0
NEW HAMPTON
Keegan Kane 6.00 7 2 0 2 5 0
Max Babcock 1.00 0 0 0 0 0 0
Game Two
NEW HAMPTON 4, CHARLES CITY 3
CC AB R H BI NH AB R H BI
Colton Slinger 3 0 0 0 Mason Cleveland 3 0 0 0
JJ Ritter 5 0 1 1 Ryan Anderson 5 0 0 0
Cole Reams 4 0 1 0 Wyatt Stochl 4 1 2 0
Jace Cajthaml 4 0 0 0 Max Babcock 5 3 5 1
Tait Arndt 5 1 3 0 Hunter Pesek 4 0 0 1
Wyatt Stevenson 4 1 0 0 Keegan Kane 5 0 1 1
Carter Johanningmeie 2 0 0 1 Connor Hackman 4 0 0 0
Kaden Barry 2 0 0 0 Austin Hemann 4 0 1 0
Atticus Parrott 2 0 0 0 Brayden Anderson 1 0 1 1
Ian Collins 3 1 1 0 Conner Gormann 3 0 0 0
TOTALS 34 3 6 2 TOTALS 38 4 10 4
CHARLES CITY 001 200 000 0 — 3
NEW HAMPTON 000 020 100 1 — 4
LOB–CHARLES CITY 9, NEW HAMPTON 12. 2B–Tait Arndt, Wyatt
Stochl. HR–Max Babcock. SACB–Ian Collins, Hunter Pesek.SB–Colton Slinger, Ian Collins (2), Max Babcock, Keegan Kane.
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Carter Johanningmeier 4.67 6 2 2 3 0 0
Cole Reams 4.67 4 2 2 2 7 1
NEW HAMPTON
Mason Cleveland 6.33 4 3 2 5 9 0
Max Babcock 3.67 2 0 0 2 3 0