Comets hoping for no showers

Dry season would be a fine season for Charles City baseball team

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — The battle cry for the 1948 Boston Braves was “Spahn and Spain and Pray for Rain” in reference to the team’s top-heavy yet puddle-shallow pitching staff.

The Charles City Comets can’t afford to pray for rain, especially when they play host at Sportsmen’s Park.

“It’s been that way for as long as I’ve been a part of the program,” said Tyler Dowling, who played baseball for Charles City (2000-2004) and has been coaching in the program for the last 11 years — the past three as varsity head coach.

“Whenever it rains, our outfield gets flooded. The water just sits on top and doesn’t drain. So it gets real mushy. And when the water finally recedes, you get a lot of muck out there.”

Thus, a rainy summer means a lot of home-game cancellations, postponements and relocations.

“In 2010, we only played two home games,” Dowling said of the year in which the Comets were state runner-ups. “It makes it hard to schedule a lot of games knowing that a lot of them may have to be made up on the road.”

A heavy yet brief downpour washed out the Comets’ scheduled home opener against Clear Lake on Monday. Fortunately, the forecast for more rain on Tuesday didn’t pan out and Charles City was able to get in a belated opener against Mason City.

Last season, Charles City was 19-12 and got as far as the Class 3A district finals before losing to eventual state champion Waverly-Shell Rock.

The Comets graduated seven starters from that team.

“We’re young but we bring back some guys with experience,” Dowling said. “Drew Mitchell threw a lot for us last year as a sophomore, and we’re looking for him to be our ace.”

Mitchell was 3-2 with a 3.79 earned run average in 40 ¾ innings pitched.

Dowling will look to junior Nate Lasher to provided defensive stability in the middle infield.

“We’re also going to utilize (senior) Tyler Brockney’s speed in the outfield,” Dowling said. “We used him a lot last year as a courtesy runner.”

Another returning senior that will likely get more playing time this season is Brady Sickman.

“Last year he worked his way up to varsity and came up big for us during the end of the season,” Dowling said of Sickman, whom he honored last week with the team’s “Senior Spotlight Award” during the Comets Senior Sports Banquet.

Sickman recently finished his high school soccer career with Mason City where he played goalie for the Mohawks. In April, he had his appendix removed but managed to come back near the end of the season.

“And he’ll be out here tonight,” Dowling said before Tuesday’s opener.

In addition to being the ace, Mitchell will be one of the returning big sticks for the Comets as he hit .337 last year. With BJ Foster and Dallas Nehls, Mitchell was the Comets’ co-leader in home runs — one … the Comets only hit three all last season in 840 at bats.

“When they went to BBCOR bats for safety, it cut down a lot of home runs,” Dowling said. “When I played, just about every guy on my team had at least one home run. Now with them using (BBCOR bats) in college, home runs totals have been cut down there, too. If a 22-year-old has a hard time taking one out, imagine how difficult it is for an eighth- or ninth-grader.”

Such imposed power limitations gives Dowling more of an excuse to play small ball and to enforce greater emphasis on defense.

“If your pitchers throw strikes and got a good defense backing them up, it’s going to take them at least three hits in an inning to score a run against you,” Dowling said.

According to Dowling, starting high school baseball in May — rather unique compared to the rest of the country — makes for arduous May … rain or no rain.

“A lot of our guys were in track and golf during the spring, so it was hard to schedule a full practice while their other sports were still going on,” Dowling said. “I just asked of them to make to practice twice a week after fulfilling obligations to their other sports.”