Comets fall to NEIC rival Cadets 4-3
Charles City’s Lydia Staudt slides into second base for a stolen base as the ball gets away from Crestwood shortstop Olivia Ollendick. The Comets scored 3 runs in the first inning for an early 3-0 lead, but were held scoreless for the rest of the game allowing the Cadets to catch and overtake them in a 4-3 final.
By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — Safety-first softball seldom gets second-guessed.
And if applied regularly, it can land you safely into second place … or third or fourth place.
Going into Friday’s home game against the Crestwood Cadets, the Charles City Comets were in first place amid Northeast Iowa Conference standings with the Cadets lingering not so far behind.
So a lot was at stake when the Comets had runners on first and second with one out and trailing by one (4-3) in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Against Cadet starter Kyleigh Foster, Comet sophomore Madie Lensing from the left side of the plate slapped a line drive headed for left field. Charles City — eschewing the safety-first dictum of making sure a liner clears the infield before venturing too far off the bag — aggressively sought to take advantage of a game-tying opportunity only to have Cadet shortstop Olivia Ollendick range to her right like Don Kessinger to snare Lensing’s bid for a hit and double-up the Comet formerly on second base.
It was cause for celebration for the Cadets, who trailed 3-0 after the first inning before tying the game in the sixth and then taking the lead in the seventh.
Foster, who picked up the complete-game win after pitching six scoreless innings after the rough start in the first, also had a productive day from the leadoff with two hits and 2 RBIs.
Ollendick had two hits and an RBI, and Tierney Perkins had two hits for the Cadets, who improved to 12-6 overall and 7-3 in the NEIC — still in second place behind the Comets.
Charles City senior graduate Lydia Staudt got on base three times with two hits and a base on balls. She also had three stolen bases and scored the first run of the game during the 3-run first.
Alex Wohlers had two hits including an RBI single and a “one-more-bisquit-for-breakfast” double off the left-right field off the fence, for the Comets (13-6, 9-2), who will try to get back on the winning track when they travel to Waukon on Tuesday for a doubleheader.
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