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Cedar Rapids Xavier softball team goes to 25-0 with double-header sweep of Cedar Rapids Prairie, one in a blowout and one in a nailbiter
Saints win 10-0 in four innings, then 1-0 in a full seven
Jun. 19, 2025 10:38 pm, Updated: Jun. 20, 2025 3:30 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS - A blowout and a barnburner. Cedar Rapids Xavier’s softball team won them both Thursday night.
Class 4A’s top-ranked team scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first inning to rout Class 5A No. 7 Cedar Rapids Prairie, 10-0, in an opening game of a double-header stopped after three and a half innings due to mercy rule.
Braylen Conlon homered in the bottom of the first, and that turned out to the only run in the 1-0 nightcap. The games were played at Xavier.
“I think it’s really important to play some of these tight games, low-scoring games,” Conlon said. “That’s how it’s going to be in the postseason. I think playing in high-pressure situations and coming out on top is really going to help us in the long run. Especially when we make a state run, those teams are going to be like that. So getting used to it now is really important.”
“This was definitely a game that we needed,” agreed Xavier Coach Nikki Gahring. “We have talked a lot about the pressure of a game like this, that it was coming. We didn’t know when it was coming, but we knew it was coming. It showed its face tonight.”
Xavier (25-0) has bludgeoned most of its opponents offensively this season, and did so in Game 1 with that double-digit run count in the first. It came on seven hits, a hit batter and a couple of walks, with Prairie (14-8) having to use three different pitchers to finally get out of it.
Lefty pitcher Lila Canny found the outside corner to be pretty generous in Game 2, and constantly peppered pitches there for Prairie, keeping Xavier’s bats at bay. Other than Conlon’s home run to right-center in the first, the Saints had just one other hit, a pop fly into short center field that gave Gabby Hagstrom a single.
Western Kentucky-bound pitcher Conlon struck out 10 in her four innings of Game 1 work for Xavier, allowing just two singles. She threw four more innings starting Game 2 and didn’t give up a hit, ceding to sophomore Alaina Gahring the rest of the way.
Prairie picked up singles in the top of the sixth from Riley Redig and Lola Hawkins, but Gahring got a flyout to center field to end that Hawks threat. In the seventh, Deija Cooper walked leading off, was bunted to second but got no farther, with Gahring getting a strikeout and flyout to end the game.
“Execute pitches and throw to contact, so my defense can back me up and make those awesome plays that they always make,” Alaina Gahring said.
Xavier is one of five remaining teams in the state that are undefeated. The others are Albia in Class 3A, Osage and West Lyon in 2A and Clarksville in 1A.
“They know (they are undefeated), but we know a loss is coming at some point,” Coach Gahring said. ‘It’s inevitable, and that’s OK. You don’t necessarily lose, but you learn. That’s kind of our big thing. We learn when we win, and we’re going to learn when we lose. Even if we play lights out, and we lose at some point, it’s going to come. We’ll tackle it when it does come and learn.
“The whole season is one giant process. Every day brings new challenges, every day is a part of the process, so we’ve got to keep grinding through the process.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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