Comets defeat Vikings 10-2, advance to softball regional semifinals

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — If this happened to any other team, it would have been a bad omen.

While hosting the Class 4A-Region 7 softball quarterfinal against Decorah — a team that they beat handily in all three of their regular-season, Northeast Iowa Conference games — the Charles City Comets were faced with a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the top of the first inning.

It came about after the Comets’ resident eighth-grade ace Addison Ellis walked the first two batters on eight pitches before hitting the third batter with a pitch.

But the Comets and Ellis have been in this situation so many times this season, yet seem to always get out of it with no runs scored against them.

The Vikings did manage to score a run out of all that and held on to the 1-0 lead through two innings, but the Comets rallied for 4 runs in the third and 5 runs in the fifth on way to winning 10-2 and advancing to the semifinal round this Saturday against Clear Creek-Amana at Clear Creek Middle School.

Comet leadoff hitter Emerson Bohlen reached base four times with a base on balls followed by a triple, a single and a double (a home run shy of hitting for the cycle).

Senior third baseman Alex Wohlers had three hits, junior shortstop Brooklyn Molitor had an RBI double and an RBI-single, senior Lauren Staudt had two hits and an RBI, freshman Edie Collins had a RBI-double, and Ellis — after adjusting to the home plate umpire’s low strike zone — eventually struck out 11 while scattering three hits and only walked one more Viking for the rest of her complete-game win.

Charles City’s next opponent, the Clippers, are ranked No. 10 among Class 4A teams according to the final rankings released this week by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.

Despite having won 25 games with only five losses, the Comets haven’t broken into the IGHSAU’s Class 4A Top 15 all season.

No. 9-ranked Western Dubuque and Waverly-Shell Rock, which clinched the NEIC title with a 1-0 win over the Comets on Monday, will face each other in the bracket’s other semifinal on Saturday.

Like Clear Creek-Amana, Western Dubuque received a bye to the semis.

Waverly-Shell Rock advanced with a 4-3 quarterfinal win over Marion on Thursday.