Comet softball coach Brian Bohlen reaches 500th career victory

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — It has been suggested that players win games and coaches only lose them.

If that’s the case, then the softball players who have played and are playing for Charles City veteran coach Brian Bohlen are currently 500 and 0.

That 500th win came an inning early against Clear Lake when Charles City freshman Edie Collins’s hard-hit single chased two runners home to cap a 10-0 final in the bottom of the sixth during the third game of Saturday’s triangular tournament hosted by the Comets.

Earlier, the Comets had gotten Bohlen his 499th career win when they edged Class 1A ninth-ranked Clarksville 6-5 in the first game of the tournament.

“I really have to get back to you,” Bohlen said during the post-tournament celebration on the field that included several of his former players and coaches. “It’s hard for me to put together words to describe how I feel right now.”

Considering that, we’ll let the facts speak for themselves.

Bohlen is amidst his 22nd season leading the Comets. His teams have advanced to the State Softball Championships six times including a span of five in a row from 2016 to 2020 with a third-place showing in 2019.

That year (2019), Bohlen picked up his 400th win during a road victory against Forest City.

Bohlen may have a long road ahead of him if he wants to catch legendary Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Adel coach Larry Niemeyer, whose 2,089 coaching wins is not only the all-time best in Iowa, but in the nation as well. But Bohlen and the Comets are due for some more wins in the future — immediate and distant.

Case in point is the emergence of several Comet newcomers this season, in particular eighth-grade southpaw pitcher Addison Ellis.

Ellis has helped the Comets get off to a 3-1 start this year while posting the same pitching record.

She picked up her first win of her varsity career last Thursday (May 23) on the road against Independence when she stuck out 16 and yielded just three hits in a 1-0 shutout over the Mustangs.

Keely Collins’s RBI-double in the seventh inning proved to be the game-winning hit.

During the Comets’ 6-5 win over the ranked Indians, Ellis struck out 10 in seven innings as only 1 of the 5 runs scored off her were earned.

Ellis also had two hits and 2 RBIs, so did leadoff hitter Emerson Bohlen who also scored a run.

Freshman Edie Collins, who currently leads the team with a .556 batting average, was 2 for 3 with an RBI against Clarksville.

During the milestone win against the Lions, Ellis struck out 12 and yielded just two hits in six innings, and went 2 for 3 with an RBI-double.

Senior Alex Wohlers and junior Payton Hadley each had 2 RBIs against the Lions.

On Friday, Charles City lost its home-opener 2-1 against Cedar Falls.

With a chilled wind coming in gusts from the north, the game was draped with football weather. And in such conditions, defense usually rules the day as well as the early evening.

In the bottom of the sixth with two runners on and the Comets trailing by the aforementioned final score, Hadley hit a sinking line drive over the left side of the Tigers’ infield that looked as if it was going to at least tie the game.

But Cedar Falls’ senior left fielder Carley Strelow made an all-out diving catch, snaring the ball just off the damp grass for the third out of the inning.

Bohlen and Wohlers each had two hits in the loss against the Tigers.

The Comets will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Mikkelson Park to take on the New Hampton Chickasaws.