IOWA CITY - Ryan Rumpf knows he made a big mistake at the state baseball tournament last year and may have cost Iowa City West the Class 4A title against Kennedy.

He was supposed to pitch against the Cougars in the state finals, but he was suspended before the game and watched helplessly as Kennedy rolled to an 11-1 victory and the championship.

That's why Rumpf was so anxious to pitch against the top-ranked Cougars Tuesday night. Missing the state finals has gnawed at him for the last 10 months.

"Since that game ended, I marked this game on my calender," he said Tuesday. "This game was pretty big for me, to see where I'm at and to see what I could have done last year. This is the game I wanted to pitch for a long time."

Rumpf tossed a complete game and beat Kennedy, 8-1, in the opener of a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader at Iowa City West to help ease his pain.

The Cougars won the nightcap, 10-8, to gain a split.

Rumpf struck out eight batters and scattered six hits. He spotted an 84 mph fastball, displayed a sharp breaking ball and mixed in effective changeups. "I just felt like I was on tonight," he said.

Rumph knows nothing can erase what happened in Des Moines last July. He made a mistake and got suspended, but he said he's learned from the miscue and moved forward.

"At first everyone is going to be mad, upset, angry," he said. "But it's done, you can't really change the past."

Kennedy whipped the Trojans, 11-1, in the state finals. The Cougars had heard rumors that Rumpf had been suspended, but Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer wasn't sure until he was given the official lineup card before the championship game.

"It was a distraction for us," Hoyer said Tuesday. "Certainly it hurt them, there's no question about that, but it was a distraction for us, too."

The championship game was supposed to be a showdown between the top pitchers for both teams, with Rumpf facing Kennedy star Austin Christensen.

"I felt really good going into last year's game," Hoyer said. "We'd seen Ryan before. He's terrific, and you saw that tonight, but we were really playing well at the time last year. And I thought with Austin on the mound we had a very good chance of beating him."

Rumpf has received a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Iowa next season. Christensen has a scholarship to Nebraska, so they could meet in future Big Ten games, but Christensen did not pitch against the fourth-ranked Trojans on Tuesday.

Iowa City West Coach Charlie Stumpff thinks Rumpf has learned from his mistake, although he said it took awhile for Rumpf to recover from what happened at the state tournament.

"The first month after, he's a young guy and he was angry about a lot of things," said Stumpff. But he likes what he's seen from Rumpf this season. "He's being a leader, he's being positive. Hopefully he'll do the right thing from now on."

Rumpf went 3-for-4 with a double, home run and two RBIs in the first game. Connor Schreck hit two homers for the Trojans (5-2, 1-1) in the opener.

Christensen went 3-for-3 for Kennedy (6-2, 1-1) in the nightcap with a double and home run, his fifth homer of the year. Terrell Sykes went 2-for-5 with a double, triple and two RBIs for the Cougars, Griffin Michael was 2-for-3 with three RBIs and Austin Benson went 2-for-2.

Cody Bell allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings in the nightcap for Kennedy, but left the mound with an 8-6 lead and got the win. David Yancey pitched the final two innings for his second save in two days.

Kennedy beat Marshalltown, 6-1, on Monday before getting the split on Tuesday, all on the road against good pitchers. "To get two out of those three, I feel real good about that," Hoyer said.

Christensen went 4-for-6 in the twinbill for Kennedy and actually saw his batting average drop from .706 to .696. He's 16-for-23 in eight games with five homers and 15 RBIs.

GAME 1

KENNEDY (1)
Sykes, 2b, 3 0 2 0, Jacobus, ss, 3 0 0 0, Christensen, 1b, 3 0 1 0, Michael, p, 2 0 0 0, Taylor, p, 1 0 0 0, Yancey, lf, 3 0 0 0, Jahlas, cf, 3 0 1 0, Bell, 3b, 2 1 1 0, Maiers, c, 2 0 1 0, Benson, dh, 2 0 0 0, Ambrosy, rf, 0 0 0 0. Totals 24 1 6 0.

IOWA CITY WEST (8)
Peller, cf, 4 1 1 0, Franz, 2b, 4 2 1 0, Rumpf, p, 4 1 3 2, Grimsman, cf, 0 1 0 0, Bonner, 1b, 3 0 0 0, Schreck, 4 2 2 3, Siems, dh, 3 0 0 0, Baker, c, 0 0 0 0, Cronk, 3b, 4 0 1 0, Crimmins, ss, 3 0 1 0, Reiners, lf, 3 1 2 0. Totals 32 8 11 5.

Kennedy           001 000 0 - 1 6 5
Iowa City West 141 101 x - 8 11 1

Michael, Taylor (4) and Maiers. Rumpf and Baker. W - Rumpf. L - Michael.
2B - Sykes, Bell, Rumpf, Reiners 2. HR - Rumpf, Schreck 2. SB - Peller, Franz 2, Rumpf.

GAME 2

KENNEDY (10)
Sykes, 2b, 5 2 2 2, Jacobus, 3b, 4 0 0 0, Christensen, 1b, 3 3 3 1, Michael, ss, 3 1 2 3, Yancey, lf, 4 0 0 0, Jahlas, cf, 4 0 1 1, Bell, p, 2 0 0 0, Hayden, cr, 0 2 0 0, Maiers, c, 4 0 0 0, Benson, dh, 2 2 2 1, Ambrosy, rf, 0 0 0 0, Lloyd, p, 0 0 0 0. Totals 31 10 10 8.

IOWA CITY WEST (8)
Peller, cf, 3 1 1 0, Franz, 2b, 4 1 1 1, Rumpf, 3b, 4 1 2 2, Bonner, 1b, 0 0 0 0, Beasley, 1b, 1 0 0 0, Yoder, 1b, 2 0 0 0, Schreck, rf, 4 1 1 0, Siems, dh, 4 1 2 3, Baker, c, 0 0 0 0, Cronk, p, 4 1 3 1, Grimsman, cf, 0 1 0 0, Crimmins, ss, 4 1 1 0, Reiners, lf, 3 0 3 1. Totals 33 8 14 8.

Kennedy          211 312 0 - 10 10 1
Iowa City West 012 131 0 -  8 14 1

Bell, Lloyd (5), Yancey (6) and Maiers. Cronk, Ross (5) and Baker. W - Bell (2-0). L - Cronk. S - Yancey.
2B - Sykes, Christensen, Benson, Peller, Franz, Rumpf, Siems, Cronk. 3B - Sykes. HR - Christensen, Siems, Cronk. SB - Christensen, Jahlas, Hayden, Peller, Rumpf, Reiners 2.