Comets ‘walk’ into state semis with 4-3 win over Fillies

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
FORT DODGE — As a state and Drake Relays-qualifying long-distance runner, Charles City sophomore Kiki Connell doesn’t walk to finish her races like several less-conditioned athletes tend to do.

Yet Connell was able to walk to the finish line as well as to the semifinals of the Class 4A bracket at State Softball Championship with the rest of her Comet teammates when her bases-loaded base on balls forced in the winning run in a dramatic 4-3 final against Dallas Center-Grimes, Tuesday at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex.

“I’m still shaking right now,” said Comet head coach Brian Bohlen after the eventful bottom of the seventh where Charles City needed 1 run to tie and 2 to win to secure its second Final Four appearance at the tournament in three years.

The No. 3-seeded Comets (36-3) will face No. 2-seeded North Scott (27-14) at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on complex’s Iowa Central Field, where Charles City may have just rid itself of a nagging curse — the Comets have a recent history of humbling losses on the field in the opening rounds of past tournaments.

Late in the regular season, the Comets lost an extra-inning game to North Scott, which incidentally needed extra innings to get past Oskaloosa 3-2 in its first-round game.

There was a distinct contrast in styles with the two starting pitchers. Charles City senior all-stater Sami Heyer is a foremost strikeout artist who has more than 800 Ks for high school career, while Fillie senior Erica Manning tends to keep hitters off-balanced with her changeup and drop pitch. Though hitters make more contact off Manning as she only has 24 strikeouts in 73 innings, it’s usually not solid contact.

Not getting good contact off Manning is what plagued the Comets throughout most of the game, though Charles City did open the scoring with a lone run in the bottom of the first with three-straight singles in order by Rachel Chambers, Ashlyn Hoeft and Allie Cross.

But Manning and the Fillies held the often explosive Comets scoreless for the next four innings while taking a 3-1 lead.

After Cross doubled for her second hit of the game to lead off the bottom of the sixth, Connell — who started out the at-bat from the right side of the plate before switching to the left side after two strikes — drove a shot back at Manning, who got a glove on it but only deflected it away from her shortstop, who couldn’t keep it in the infield and prevent Cross from scoring to make it a 1-run game.

Charles City had the top of the order coming up in the bottom of the seventh. Junior Liz Fiser led off with a solid single ahead of freshman Lydia Staudt beating out a bunt. Chambers followed with a drive off the fence in left-center for a double — her third hit of the game — chasing Fiser home for the tying run.

With no outs and runners on second and third, and one of Charles City better hitters — Hoeft — coming to the plate, the odds seemed to highly favor the Comets in advancing to the semis.

But Fillie left fielder Hannah Rauschenberg got a good jump on a liner hit by Hoeft and alertly doubled up Chambers at second base, and suddenly the Fillies were on the verge of pulling off a great escape.

Lani Gannon, who relieved Manning to face Hoeft, walked Cross and Alex Litterer in order to load the bases. Manning then was called back into the circle where she walked Connell on four straight pitches.

“We want to put on a show for the fans who support us, and attack,” said Bohlen, whose team’s 36th win was the first of the season where it had to come from behind in the final inning, “but most of all, we have fun. What makes this team is how much fun they are to be around with.

“Early in the game, they may have been taking things too serious. We were a little too tense, and we were trying to win the game with a single swing of the bat. We basically have two lineups in one … two slap hitters at the top of the order, followed by three power hitters, then two slappers and two power hitters at the bottom. For our offense to work, it has to be a team effort.”

Heyer picked up her state-leading 34th win of the season after giving up four hits and 3 earned runs in seven innings while striking out six and walking two.

Other Class 4A teams advancing to the semifinals include No. 1-seed Carlisle, which defeated Denison-Schleswig 10-1; and West Delaware, which defeated Independence 8-2.

CHARLES CITY 4, DALLAS CENTER-GRIMES 3
DCG AB R H BI C C AB R H BI
Kylie Merical 3 0 0 0 Lisabeth Fiser 4 1 2 0
Lauren Osborn 3 0 0 0 Lydia Staudt 4 1 1 0
Kamryn O’Brien 2 0 0 0 Rachel Chambers 4 1 3 1
Molly Cooney 1 0 0 0 Ashlyn Hoeft 4 0 2 0
Elle Nelsen 3 2 2 1 Allie Cross 3 1 2 1
Morgan Rosenbeck 3 0 0 0 Alex Litterer 3 0 0 0
Haylee Hidlebaugh 3 0 1 1 Kiki Connell 3 0 1 2
Maria Hendricks 3 0 1 1 Samantha Heyer 3 0 0 0
Hannah Rauschenberg 2 0 0 0 Sadie Gebel 2 0 0 0
Riley Feeley 1 0 0 0 Dani Reetz 1 0 0 0
*Olivia Huston 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 24 3 4 3 TOTALS 31 4 11 4
DALLAS CENTER-GRIMES 020 100 0 — 3
CHARLES CITY 100 001 2 — 4
LOB–DALLAS CENTER-GRIMES 3, CHARLES CITY 10. ERR–Kamryn O’Brien. 2B–Elle Nelsen, Rachel Chambers, Allie Cross. SACB–Molly Cooney. SB–Elle Nelsen.
DCG IP H R ER BB SO HR
Erica Manning 6.00 11 4 4 1 2 0
Lani Gannon (L) 0.67 0 0 0 2 0 0
CC
Samantha Heyer (W) 7.00 4 3 3 2 6 0
SO–Hannah Rauschenberg (2), Haylee Hidlebaugh, Molly Cooney, Lauren Osborn, Elle Nelsen, Sadie Gebel, SamanthaHeyer. BB–Kamryn O’Brien, Molly Cooney, Alex Litterer, KikiConnell, Allie Cross.
NOTES: Umpires-Plate-Tom Burger, 1B-Ross Hemsley, 3B-Jeff Osborne. WP-Heyer(34-3), LP-Gannon(9-10)