Metro Sports Report

Woods belts homer, Belmont ousts Okie State

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Nate Woods hit a solo home run in the first inning Saturday to help Belmont eliminate Oklahoma State, 3-2, in the NCAA regional baseball tournament.

The victory was the first in school history for Belmont in any NCAA Division I tournament, regardless of the sport.

Belmont (37-25) will play Vanderbilt or Troy on Sunday in the double-elimination tournament. The Bruins lost to No.6 Vanderbilt, 10-0, in the first round on Friday.

Woods is from Cedar Rapids and graduated from Xavier High School in 2007. He is hitting .341 with 13 homers and 62 RBIs.

Saints cap 'unbelievable' season with 2nd straight title

DES MOINES - The Xavier boys soc-
cer team set out to "shock the world" at the beginning of the season and
on Saturday the Saints completed their mission.

Xavier knocked off Norwalk, 1-0, in the state championship game at the Cownie Soccer Complex.It was the Saints' second straight title.

After last year’s state championship season, the Saints lost three first team all-state players and there were doubters that they could repeat.

But the team never lost faith.

“Shock the world baby,” senior defender Tim Bouchard exclaimed.
“A lot of people said we couldn’t do it after loosing (Aaron) Lacey, Chuck (Charlie Bales) and Clayton (Lynch), three all-staters last year. A lot of people said there is no way to do it, we don’t have the star power.

"But we came together all winter, came together all season. Since March 15, at the beginning of this year, we have had one dream and that was this and we did it. It is unbelievable.”

The championship gave the Xavier boys soccer program five state championships overall. The Saints won three in a row from 2004-2006. The Saints had a three-year title drought after that before winning again last year. This year’s team wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Xavier boys soccer is back.

“Before last year we kind of had a drought and we just wanted to keep that Xavier history going and get the streak started up again,” said senior Michael Tessmer.

Saints sweep Prairie Hawks

Xavier survived a hitting onslaught by Prairie by playing solid defense and taking advantage of the Hawks' leaky fielding to post a Mississippi Valley Conference baseball sweep, 6-4 and 6-5, Friday night.

The Saints (7-2, 3-1) played the kind of ball that would have brought a smile to the late Ken Charipar, for whom the Saints' playing field is named. Charipar, the highly successful Cedar Rapids American Legion coach, died in March. The Saints honored him Friday on Ken Charipar Night.

Charipar also would have had an appreciation for the way Prairie hit the ball. The Hawks had 27 hits in 14 innings, getting at least one hit in every inning except the last frame of the nightcap. But they stranded 19 baserunners.

“We had 27 hits and played well enough to win two,” said Hawk Coach Matt Thede.  “We had two innings that we had too many errors and we left too many guys on base, but from my point of view, we should have gotten two.”

“They had men on base all night,” said Xavier Coach Dave Schemmel. “They are a really good club, but we executed when we needed to and hung on to win.  I’m proud of the way the boys stuck in there tonight.”

In game one, Prairie (4-4, 2-2) got on the board in the second with an rbi single by Ty Mougin.  In the third, Xavier (5-2, 3-1) plated three unearned runs on three Prairie errors and a lone single by Kevin Hosch.  Mac Mattke added an rbi double in the fifth inning and rbi singles by Colby Brecht and Corbin Woods in the sixth stretched the lead to 6-1. Woods is Charipar's grandson.

In the top of the seventh, Anthony Gagliardi hit a three-run home run, but it was not enough. Dane Mehring picked up the win for the Saints, scattering 13 hits in six innings. Mattke got the save.

J-Hawks dump Warriors on Joe Kenney Night

Jefferson High School honored Hall of Fame baseball coach Joe Kenney with a special ceremony Friday night.

Once the ceremony was over, the 2011 J-Hawks honored his memory by playing a strong game in a 13-3 victory over Cedar Rapids Washington in five innings.

Kenney holds the Metro record with 753 victories during his career at LaSalle, Washington and Jefferson from the 1960's through the 1990's. He died in January at age 86, and Jefferson saluted him Friday on Coach Kenney Hall of Fame Night.

More than 30 former players joined members of Kenney's family on the Jefferson Field before the game.

"Joe hired me when I first started here 16 years ago as his eighth grade coach, and so I got to know Joe pretty well," said Jefferson Coach Mike Kuba. "What a neat guy. He was just a true baseball traditionalist, pure and simple.

"He always coached his coaches, so there was always something to learn from him," said Kuba. "He was just a wonderful, wonderful man."

The Hall of Fame ceremony had a special twist with Gordy Nordgren and his son, Nick, both inducted Friday along with Tyler Born. Gordy Nordgren, currently one of Jefferson's assistant coaches, starred for the J-Hawks and previously served as head coach.

The game itself was a lopsided affair. The J-Hawks (3-4, 2-2) slugged three home runs in the third inning and ended the contest in the bottom of the fifth by the 10-run rule.

Sophomore Ky Kramer, junior Christian Knox and senior Drew Striegel all cleared the "Blue Monster" with homers over the left-field fence in the third when Jefferson scored nine runs for an 11-0 lead. "It was pretty fun," Striegel said of the power display.