Prep softball: Comets softball celebration
Jun. 20—ELDON — Before she was leading the Cardinal High School softball team out on the field as head coach Sabrina Morrison, Sabrina Swanson was part of a team that brought home the first state team championship home for the Comets almost two full decades ago.
Several of Morrison's former teammates, along with their families, returned on Saturday to be honored during Cardinal's home softball triangular. Many of Morrison's current players are hoping that someday they'll be able to celebrate the same incredible accomplishment that the 2003 and 2004 Comet softball team achieved.
"Our girls want to be those women out there on that field that went to state and won at state," Cardinal senior Caitlyn Reber said. "I know we have this passion of wanting to be there because we know we can. We're a good, solid team. It's definitely motivating to see that.
"When we get older, we feel like that's going to be us out there coming together and being honored for what we accomplished looking at the next generation of softball players. Hopefully, we'll be able to put the 2022 team up on that wall."
The 2022 Comets looked like a team capable of joining the 2003 and 2004 state championship teams on Saturday, dominating both 15th-ranked (3A) Chariton and Pekin to earn a pair of run-rule wins. Reber scored five of Cardinal's 24 runs in the two wins as the Comets took advantage of nine Chariton errors, rolling to an impressive 12-0 win over the newly-ranked Chargers in just four innings before drawing 17 walks over six innings in a 12-2 victory over the Panthers to close out a winning day for a program with a winning history.
"I was excited that (Cardinal superintendent) Joel (Pedersen) gave me the go-ahead to celebrate the state championship teams. We've done some renovations to the field and we've finally got some signs out here to honor the accomplishments of those teams," Morrison said. "It was really nice to see some girls that we haven't seen in quite awhile, catch up with them and see what they're up to with their lives.
"They're kids are starting to play ball. There were a few handful that couldn't be here because they're with their kids at tournaments. I actually had to head to Coralville myself to watch my son play (on Saturday) his baseball games. It was a busy day, but it was a great celebration."
On the field, the Comets (12-9) were celebrating success right from the start as Reber, Brinlee Ostrander, Emma Becker and Kinsey Hissem all reached on hits against Chariton without recording an out. Becker's hit brought Reber around with Ostrander also making a dash home on the first of Chariton's nine defensive miscues, allowing Becker to make it all the way to third on the hit before scoring on Hissem's single to give Cardinal an immediate 3-0 lead.
"Our bats were on as a team and we just worked off each other constantly," Reber said. "If somebody got a good hit, the next person got a good hit just working off each other. I think that helped us a lot. We were cheering each other on every play we made."
Nicoa McClure allowed just four Chargers to reach base, giving up just one hard-hit infield single in the fourth to McKenzie Snook. Two of Chariton's four baserunners, however, were caught trying to steal second as Ostrander fired darts to both Becker and Reber, who clipped Snook on the heal as she was heading into second base trying to spark a rally with Cardinal already up 6-0 after scoring three runs aided by three more Chariton errors in the third.
"It encouraged us a lot to be home. That always helps when the fans are here supporting us. The biggest thing for us is that we want to get to the state tournament," Reber said. "We want it really bad and we know we've got the team capable of making it. Beating a team as good as Chariton helped us get a look at what we're capable of doing and what we're capable of accomplishing this season."
Chariton (14-4) showed their true quality in the second of the three games on Saturday, rolling to an 11-1 win in five innings over Pekin. After being plagued by errors against Cardinal, the Chargers took advantage of nine Panther errors in game two, scoring seven unearned runs with a pair of run-scoring hits by Lucy Stratton and Addie McGee allowing the Chargers to jump out to a 3-0 lead of their own after one inning and an 8-0 lead after two.
Pekin (5-11) looked to bounce back in the final game of the day with both the Panthers and Comets mixing in new players into the varsity line-up. Despite giving up four walks and a run in the opening inning, Abby Guise was given a lead to protect by her Pekin teammates in the second inning when Myah Bainbridge walked and scored on a throwing error by Cardinal starting pitcher Ava Ferrell, allowing Kendyl Noel to reach third and eventually score on a groundout by Guise to give Pekin a 2-1 lead.
Ultimately, however, the inexperience of the Panthers would allow Cardinal to even the score as a throwing error by eighth-grade catcher Peyten Coleman allowed Cynthia Albert to score the tying run in the second inning. McClure hit a deep fly ball to left that was misjudged, leading to a double that ignited a four-run rally that included the first of three hits in three consecutive innings by Madison Diveley, driving in three of Cardinal's final seven runs.
"We got beat up really good in some tough games earlier this season, games against good teams that we came up just short in," Morrison said. "From here on out, the girls know how they want to end the season. I think that we've shown just what Cardinal softball is all about. We're going hit the ball, we're going to run the bases and we're going to score some runs."
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
