Let’s win 3 — Comets sweep ‘tripleheader’ against Indians
By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com
NEW HAMPTON — Trifecta … you betcha.
It’s generally accepted that it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row … let alone three times in one day.
But that’s what the Charles City Comets did to the Waukon Indians when they swept their Northeast Iowa Conference foe in what can only be considered a “tripleheader,” Friday at Mikkelson Park.
Tripleheader sweeps don’t happen too often in baseball as they only occur about … let’s see … never.
So we can safely assume that the Comets have set at least a program record for most wins recorded against a single team in a single day.
Charles City head coach Tyler Downing can’t think of anything like this happening before.
“As a player and a coach, I’ve never been in a tripleheader before,” he said. “I told our guys we had a special chance to win three games today, and they did it.”
The first game was the easy one as Comets had to attend to some unfinished business.
During a May 25 scheduled doubleheader at Waukon, the Comets took an 8-0 lead through four innings in the first game before heavy rain suspended play.
The plan was to finish that first game from where it left off when the Indians came to Charles City June 15 for what was supposed to be a JV/Varsity doubleheader. The second game of the doubleheader would also be played before the final third game of the season series between the two teams.
The games were relocated to Mikkelson Park due to the flooded conditions at Sportsmen’s Park.
In the first game, the Comets promptly scored 2 runs in the fifth and then held the Indians scoreless on way to a shortened 10-0 victory.
Theo Arndt picked up his belated fourth win of the season, Jace Cajthaml had a 2-run homer — he hit it back on the 25th — and Colton Slinger and Dylan Salinas each had two hits in the win.
The next two wins took a little more grit as Charles City had to battle back twice from early deficits as a pair of outstanding long-relief performances from Cole Reams and Salinas gave the Comets a chance to catch and overtake the Indians twice in ordered finals of 8-3 and 7-4.
Both Reams and Salinas came into the tripleheader a little banged up and got banged up some more before the day was over due to several hit by pitches, fouling a pitch of a kneecap (Salinas) and being involved in a collision at second base (Reams).
But that didn’t stop either one from picking up wins in the latter two games.
Reams, who had pitched one inning of scoreless ball in the first game, came on with one out in the second inning of the second game with Waukon leading 3-1 and limited the Indians to two hits and no runs through the six innings while striking out four.
Reams also had two hits and three RBIs in the second game, and would later record three hits in the third game.
Salinas, who had injured the thumb of his throwing hand during Charles City’s doubleheader split with Waverly-Shell Rock two days before, came in with one out in the third inning of the third game with Waukon up 4-0.
One of the harder throwers on the team, Salinas also has a knee-bending bender, and it was working fairly well against the Indians, who were completely addled in the batter’s box as Salinas held them hitless for the rest of the game while striking out 11.
Arndt had two hits, including a double that helped ignite a 3-run rally in the fourth inning to finally put the Comets on the board, and then an RBI single in the sixth as part of another 3-run rally that gave Charles City it’s margin of victory.
Slinger also had two hits in the third game, including the first of back-to-back bunt singles from him and Reams to load the bases in the sixth inning.
When Salinas subsequently got plunked for the second time in the game, it was good for an RBI that capped the scoring.
At least he didn’t get hit three times like Jalen Jones did in the second game while reaching base four times for the Comets.
In the third game, Comet freshman JJ Ritter reached base four times.
In the game before, Ritter recorded his first varsity hit — an RBI single. He ended up getting four hits for the day.
“With a day like today, we put some players in different positions and gave some opportunities to some of our younger players,” said Downing, whose team improved to 9-6 overall and 6-4 in the NEIC.
“I’d like to think we can build on this.”
Michael Headington and Levi McGeough each had two hits in the second game for Waukon (8-10, 2-7).
Game One
CHARLES CITY 10, WAUKON 0*
* Completion of May 25 suspended game
CHARLES CITY AB R H BI WAUKON AB R H BI
Theo Arndt 2 1 0 0 Miles Hansmeier 2 0 1 0
Colton Slinger 3 3 2 0 Pryce Hesse 2 0 0 0
Cole Reams 2 2 0 0 John Ronan 1 0 1 0
Dylan Salinas 3 0 2 1 Patrick Waters 2 0 0 0
Tait Arndt 4 1 1 3 Evan Armstead 2 0 1 0
Jace Cajthaml 4 1 1 2 Brock Hatlan 2 0 0 0
Wyatt Stevenson 1 0 1 1 Colin Waters 0 0 0 0
Alec Elsbernd 3 0 1 1 Carter Benzing 2 0 0 0
Elliott Sinwell 3 0 2 0 Ethan O’Neill 2 0 0 0
Noah Schlader 0 0 0 0 Garrett Garin 1 0 1 0
*Ben Miller 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 25 9 10 8 TOTALS 16 0 4 0
CHARLES CITY 004 420 — 10
WAUKON 000 00x — 0
LOB–CHARLES CITY 9, WAUKON 2. ERR–Pryce Hesse, Patrick Waters, Garrett Garin. 2B–Dylan Salinas, Colton Slinger. HR–Jace Cajthaml. HBP–Colton Slinger, Theo Arndt, Cole Reams, John Ronan. SB–Colton Slinger (2), Theo Arndt, Miles Hansmeier.
CHARLES CITY I P H R ER BB SO HR
Theo Arndt 4.00 4 0 0 0 2 0
Cole Reams 1.00 0 0 0 0 1 0
WAUKON
Patrick Waters 4.33 10 9 8 4 3 1
Brady Sullivan 0.67 0 0 0 1 0 0
BALK–Patrick Waters. SO–Theo Arndt, Jace Cajthaml, Cole Reams, Ethan O’Neill (2), Brock Hatlan. BB–Dylan Salinas, Theo Arndt, Wyatt Stevenson (2), Cole Reams.
Game Two
CHARLES CITY 8, WAUKON 3
CHARLES CITY AB R H BI WAUKON AB R H BI
Theo Arndt 4 0 1 1 Brock Hatlan 4 0 0 0
Colton Slinger 4 2 1 1 Michael Headington 4 0 2 0
Cole Reams 4 0 2 3 Abe Schwartz 3 0 0 0
Dylan Salinas 5 0 0 0 Colin Waters 2 1 0 0
Tait Arndt 2 0 1 0 Evan Armstead 2 1 1 0
Noah Schlader 1 1 0 0 Levi McGeough 3 1 2 1
Jalen Jones 1 1 0 0 Carter Benzing 3 0 0 1
Carter Johanningmeier 1 0 0 0 Pryce Hesse 1 0 1 1
JJ Ritter 3 2 2 1 Patrick Waters 1 0 0 0
Ben Miller 3 0 0 0 E than O’Neill 3 0 0 0
Wyatt Stevenson 1 1 1 0
Elliott Sinwell 3 1 1 0
TOTALS 32 8 9 6 TOTALS 26 3 6 3
CHARLES CITY 100 130 3 — 8
WAUKON 030 000 0 — 3
LOB — CHARLES CITY 11, WAUKON 5. ERR–Dylan Salinas, Evan Armstead, Michael Headington (2), Ethan O’Neill, Abe Schwartz. 2B–Levi McGeough. HBP–Jalen Jones (3). SACF–Theo Arndt. SB–Jalen Jones, Colton Slinger, JJ Ritter, Elliott Sinwell, Cole Reams.
CHARLES CITY IP H R ER BB SO HR
Carter Johanningmeier 1.33 4 3 3 1 1 0
Cole Reams 4.67 2 0 0 2 4 0
Elliott Sinwell 1.00 0 0 0 0 0 0
WAUKON
Michael Headington 5.00 6 5 3 3 4 0
Patrick Waters 2.00 3 3 3 1 1 0
PB–Dylan Salinas. WP–Michael Headington (3). SO–Colton Slinger, JJ Ritter, Theo Arndt (2), Ben Miller, Levi McGeough, Abe Schwartz (2), Carter Benzing, Brock Hatlan. BB–Colton Slinger, Elliott Sinwell, Tait Arndt, Cole Reams, Evan Armstead, Pryce Hesse, Colin Waters.
Game Three
CHARLES CITY 7, WAUKON 4
WAUKON AB R H BI CHARLES CITY AB R H BI
Brock Hatlan 4 1 0 0 JJ Ritter 2 2 2 1
Michael Headington 4 1 1 0 Colton Slinger 4 1 2 0
Abe Schwartz 4 1 0 0 Cole Reams 4 1 3 1
Colin Waters 4 0 1 1 Dylan Salinas 2 0 1 1
Evan Armstead 1 0 0 0 Jace Cajthaml 3 0 0 0
Levi McGeough 3 0 0 0 Tait Arndt 3 0 0 0
Carter Benzing 2 1 1 0 Wyatt Stevenson 3 1 0 0
Garrett Garin 3 0 0 0 Theo Arndt 3 1 2 1
Isiah Welch 3 0 0 0 Elliott Sinwell 3 0 1 1
*Alec Elsbernd 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 28 4 3 1 TOTALS 27 7 11 5
WAUKON 220 000 0 — 4
CHARLES CITY 000 313 x — 7
LOB–WAUKON 6, CHARLES CITY 9. ERR–Dylan Salinas, Jace Cajthaml, Cole Reams (3). 2B–Theo Arndt. HBP–Dylan Salinas (2), Wyatt Stevenson. SACB–Jace Cajthaml. SB–Evan Armstead, Abe Schwartz, Carter Benzing, JJ Ritter.
WAUKON IP H R ER BB SO HR
Levi McGeough 5.00 11 7 7 3 5 0
Zach Davison 1.00 0 0 0 0 1 0
CHARLES CITY
Elliott Sinwell 2.33 3 4 1 1 1 0
Dylan Salinas 4.67 0 0 0 2 11 0
PB–Jace Cajthaml (2), Cole Reams (2). WP–Levi McGeough, Dylan Salinas, Elliott Sinwell. SO–Michael Headington (2), Levi McGeough, Abe Schwartz, Isiah Welch, Carter Benzing, Brock Hatlan (2), Colin Waters (2), Garrett Garin (2), Dylan Salinas, Elliott Sinwell, Jace Cajthaml (2), Tait Arndt (2). BB–Evan Armstead (2), Carter Benzing, JJ Ritter (2), Tait Arndt.
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