Xavier wins opener with long ball, Linn-Mar earns split with defense

CEDAR RAPIDS - It was a good, old-fashioned defensive battle Tuesday night at Xavier High School.

Through four innings in the second game between the Saints and Linn-Mar, the score was tied 0-0. Neither team could string together multiple hits to get a run around the bases.

Finally, in the fifth inning, Linn-Mar catcher Christina Lincoln hit an RBI single to left field, scoring the first run of the game.

That turned out to be all it took.

Linn-Mar (22-13, 16-6) rallied back after losing game one 5-1 to beat Cedar Rapids Xavier (17-16, 13-9) 1-0 in game two, splitting the series.

'We had that one timely hit there in the fifth inning, and that was it,” Linn-Mar Coach John Begley said. 'Runs were at a premium. Both teams played great defense ... It was truly a great defensive game, and it was a very well pitched game. Not a lot of hits, but we got that one run in and that was it.”

The Saints certainly had their chances in game two, hitting several hard balls off pitcher Morgan Braughton. The Lions, though, just didn't let many balls through - something Xavier Coach Nikki Gahring said was the difference in the second game.

'We had probably seven or nine hard line drive hits that, a foot here, a foot there, they might be doubles and it's a totally different ballgame,” Gahring said. '(But) it was a clean game on both sides, and we're done before dark, so that's how it's supposed to be.”

Game one, though, was a totally different story. Xavier dominated at the plate, hitting three home runs, and holding the Lions offense at a near-standstill en route to the 5-1 win.

Begley said it was their focus at the plate that killed them, and that's what he preached in between contests.

'I just said that we have the mentality that we're going to have to hit the ball harder, and we did,” Begley said. 'We hit the ball a lot harder than we did the first game. But their defense is pretty good, and we just didn't get a lot of runs scored, but we did hit the ball harder in the second game than we did the first. It was just a little more aggressive approach at the plate.”

So even though they split, both Begley and Gahring said they were content with what they saw out of their teams Tuesday.

And with the postseason a little over a week away, getting at least one win in the doubleheader, Begley said, was critical.

'You don't want to have too many losses to start getting in your head, so it's really a positive to play a good solid game and come out here with a tight win like that,” Begley said. 'That's just what we needed.”

l Comments: ryan.young@thegazette.com