Posted on

Let’s win 3 — Comets sweep ‘tripleheader’ against Indians

Press photo by John Burbridge Charles City senior Dylan Salinas delivers a pitch during his 4-and-2/3rd innings of no-hit, no-run relief while leading the Comets to their third win of the day against Waukon on Friday.
Press photo by John Burbridge
Charles City senior Dylan Salinas delivers a pitch during his 4-and-2/3rd innings of no-hit, no-run relief while leading the Comets to their third win of the day against Waukon on Friday.
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.

Social Share

LATEST NEWS