Six Comets named to All-NEIC baseball teams

Press Staff Report
The Charles City Comets, who recently won the school’s first district title in 10 years and came a game short of advancing to the State Baseball Championships, had six players named to All-Northeast Iowa Conference baseball teams this week.

Making the first team were seniors Cole Reams and Colton Slinger, and sophomore JJ Ritter. Both Reams and Slinger were second-team selections last season; this is Ritter’s first All-NEIC team.

Named as a utility player, Reams was the Comets primary catcher where he threw out six would-be base stealers, and the team’s most reliable relief pitchers as he led the staff with a 2.19 earned run average while holding opponents to a .185 batting average in a team-leading 48 innings.

Reams also had a record of 4-2 and led the team with four saves.

At the plate, Reams hit .346.

Outfielder Slinger led the Comets in hits (40) while batting .357 from the leadoff spot. With 10 walks and getting hit by 12 pitches, Slinger led the Comets with a .463 on-base percentage.

Once Slinger got on base, he didn’t stay put as he had 13 stolen bases and came around to score 25 runs.

For the season, middle infielder Ritter hit .336 and led the Comets with 26 runs scored. Ritter also had a productive postseason as his clutch 2-run double against Waverly-Shell Rock in the district final helped pave the way to victory.

Ritter also had two of Charles City’s three hits in Wednesday’s semistate loss to No. 1-ranked Xavier.

Charles City juniors Tait Arndt and Elliott Sinwell were both named to the All-NEIC second team.

Named as an infielder, Arndt led the Comets with a .362 batting average and drove in 26 RBIs.

Arndt was the winning pitcher in the district championship victory over Waverly-Shell Rock, which was his fifth victory of the season which tied Sinwell for most on the staff.

Named as an outfielder, Sinwell didn’t commit a single error all season while taking away several hits with diving catches and good jumps on the ball on contact.

The southpaw had the best record (5-2) on the pitching staff while logging in the most starts.

At the plate, Sinwell hit .273. He was also successful in all six of his stolen base attempts.

Perhaps the most improved player from last season for the Comets was junior Atticus Parrott, who was named All-NEIC Honorable Mention.

Parrott led the Comets in home runs (3) and slugging percentage (.537) while batting .358 with an on-base percentage of .426.

Waverly-Shell Rock was the most represented among the All-NEIC teams. Seniors Kurby Vowels and Connor Havlovic, and junior Payton Leonard were named to the first team; seniors Carter Langreck and Peter McMillin, juniors Jeremy Chaplin and Brodey Key, and freshman Carson Graven were named to the second team; and freshman Korbyn Dewey was honorable mention.

New Hampton, which has advanced in the Class 2A State Baseball Championships, had seniors Mason Cleveland and Wyatt Stochl, and junior Hunter Pesek named to the first team; and seniors Keegan Kane and Max Babcock named to the second team.