Xavier Baseball

Ries puts his foot down in Xavier split

Xavier Coach Dave Schemmel gave Alex Ries some good advice this week. It paid off Tuesday.

Ries stroked a clean RBI single to left field to break a 6-6 tie and give the Saints a 7-6 victory over Linn-Mar in the first game of a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader at Ken Charipar Field.

Linn-Mar won the nightcap, 10-1.

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Cougars, J-Hawks and Saints in same substate

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy baseball team had to defeat Jefferson and Xavier this week to win the Metro Tournament, and the Cougars might have to beat them again to reach the Class 4A state tournament.

The IHSAA has assigned the Cougars, J-Hawks and Saints to Substate 3 for the postseason tournament, along with Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior and Western Dubuque. The substate champion will advance to the state baseball tournament in Des Moines.

The IHSAA has announced the groupings for each Class 4A substate, but the sites and pairings will be announced later. The games are scheduled for July 15, 18 and 20.

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Big innings bolster Xavier rout

MUSCATINE -- Xavier scored six runs in the fifth inning and eight more in the seventh and routed Muscatine, 14-5, Friday night at Tom Bruner Field.

Nate Even, Mack Mattke and Alex Ries had three hits apiece and Blake Helms drove in three runs for Xavier (3-1).  The Saints had 13 hits and were aided by six Muscatine errors.

Mattke (1-0) worked five innings and was the winning pitcher.

Max Freilinger had three of Muscatine's nine hits and also drove in three runs.

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Nate Woods enjoys banner year at Belmont

A total of 1,525 baseball players were selected in the Major League draft last year. High school kids, college kids, pimply faced kids, all sorts of kids.

But not Nate Woods.

"It was definitely devastating," he said this week.

Woods belted 20 home runs and drove in 78 runs last season at Belmont University to rank among the NCAA Division I leaders in both categories, but none of the 30 Major League teams gave him a sniff.

He was drafted in the 28th round by the Dodgers in 2007 when he was a senior at Xavier High School, but nobody thought he was worthy of being selected last year as a junior in college.

There were 50 rounds in the 2010 draft, and nobody thought the 6-foot-6, 235-pound slugger was worth a chance.

"I have no idea what happened last year," he said.

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Woods is almost glad he wasn't drafted, because he's had another magical year with the Belmont Bruins.

He drove in five runs to help them beat Tennessee 10 days ago. He was the winning pitcher when the Bruins upset 17th-ranked Stetson to clinch a spot in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament, earning him A-Sun Pitcher of the Week laurels.

He got his business degree this month, made the all-conference team as a designated hitter, received the 2011 President's Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award and has written his name all over the Belmont record book.

And it's not over yet. The Bruins need just one more victory on Saturday to win the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament and claim an automatic berth in the NCAA playoffs, which means Belmont would have a chance to reach the College World Series in Omaha.

If Woods had been drafted last year, he might have signed a pro contract and missed all this. He might be a rookie in extended spring training somewhere in Arizona or Florida, with no degree and no special memories from his senior year in college.

"I wouldn't trade it for anything," he said.

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