The effort was there, if not the results.

Xavier staged a pair of late-inning rallies that came up short and the Saints dropped both ends of a baseball doubleheader to Iowa City West, 5-4 and 9-7, on Ken Charipar Memorial Night on Friday at Xavier.

Down 5-0 after four innings in the opener, Xavier scored three runs in the fifth led by an RBI double by Mitch Keller, and a run-producing single by Mitch St. Andrews.  Bryce Grimm scored in the seventh to pull the Saints within a run, but Corbin Woods was thrown out at the plate by West center fielder Ezra Reiners to end the game.

Woods is the grandson of Charipar, a longtime American Legion coach and contributor who died last year after a bout with cancer.

“Every night is not going to be your night, but we didn’t give up, just like my grandpa would never give up, neither do we," Woods said. "Ezra made a great throw, he is a
really good player.”

Woods and St. Andrews each had two hits in the opener. Woods took the loss on the mound.

Devin Raffensberger led the way for Iowa City West with three hits, two of them doubles. Kellen Yoder got the win.

“We brought Devin up from the sophomore team to give us some pop in the middle of our line up and he gave us the pop we were looking for tonight,” said West Coach Charlie Stumpff.

In game two the Trojans held a 9-3 lead in the seventh. But Xavier scored four runs on one hit, an RBI single by Mack Mattke, before the Trojans finally closed out the Saints with the winning run at the plate.  St. Andrews and Grimm collected two hits for Xavier. Zach Brown took the loss.

“I was confident at the plate tonight and got some really good pitches to hit,” said St. Andrews, who led the Saints with four hits.

West ran its record to 17-5 overall and 10-2 in the conference. Xavier dropped to 10-7 overall and 7-5 in the conference.


GAME ONE

IOWA CITY WEST (5)
Reiners, cf, 3 1 1 0, Wilson, rf, 4 1 0 0, Bonner, 2b, 4 0 0 1, Doyle, 4 0 2 0, Raffensberger, 3b, 4 1 3 0, Baker, c, 3 0 1 0, Harder, cr, 0 0 0 0, Crimmins, ss/p, 3 2 2 1, Verry, dh, 3 0 1 1, Yoder, p, 0 0 0 0, Aller, p, 0 0 0 0, Scott, 3b, 0 0 0 0, Grimsman, lf, 3 0 1 1. Totals 31 5 11 4.

XAVIER (4)
Grimm, cf, 3 2 0 0, Woods, p/ss, 4 0 2 0, Harriott, cr 0 0 0 0, Mattke, p, 3 0 3 0, Herder, pr, 0 0 0 0, Brown, 3b, 3 0 0 0, Pick, dh, 4 0 1 0, Helms, c, 0 0 0 0,  Ratz, rf, 2 1 0 0, , Meaney, lf, 3 0 1 0, Keller, ss, 3 1 1 1, Hines, p, 0 0 0 0, St. Andrews, 2b, 3 0 2 1. Totals 28 4 7 2.

Iowa City West    121 100 0 --   5 11 1
Xavier                 000 030 1 --   4  7  2

Yoder, Aller (5), Crimmins (6) and Baker.  Woods, Hand (6) and Helms. W- Yoder. L- Woods. Sv- Crimmins. 2B-Reiners, Raffensberger 2, Keller. SB-Harder , Grimm, Woods.

GAME TWO

IOWA CITY WEST (9)
Reiners, cf/p, 4 1 1 2, Wilson, rf, 3 0 0 0, Verry, ph, 1 0 0 0, Scott, p, 0 0 0 0, Bonner, 2b, 5 1 3 0, Doyle, 1b, 5 1 1 1, Schmitt, pr, 0 0 0 0, Raffensberger, dh, 1 1 0 0, Grimsman, p, 1 0 0 0, Searls, p, 0 0 0 0, Aller, p, 0 0 0 0, Yoder,3b, 5 1 1 1, Baker, c, 3 0 3 0, Harder, cr, 0 3 0 0, Crimmins, ss, 2 1 1 1, Nash lf, 4 0 2 1.  Totals 34 9 12 6.

XAVIER (7)
Grimm, cf, 3 1 2 2, Woods, 3b/ss, 4 0 0 1, Mattke, 1b/p, 2 0 1 1, Herder, pr, 0 2 0 0, Brown, p/3b, 2 1 0 0, Pick, dh/p, 2 0 0 0, Keller, p 1 0 0 0, Schulte, p, 0 0 0 0, Ratz, rf, 2 0 0 0, Meaney, lf, 2 0 0 0, Harriott, of, 3 0 1 0, Hammerberg, c, 4 0 0 0, St. Andrews, 2b, 2 2 2 0, Tipton, ph, 0 1 0 0. Totals 28 7 6 4.

Iowa City West     131 013 0 --   9 12 2
Xavier                  001 200 4 --   7  6  1

Grimsman, Searls (5), Scott (6), Reiners (7), Aller (7), and Baker. Brown, Pick (2), Schulte (5), Scott (6), Keller (6), Mattke (7) and Hammersberg. W- Grimsman. L- Brown. Sv-Aller. 2B-Grimm, St. Andrews. SB-Herder 2.