The St. Paul Saints gave up six runs in the first inning and pulled to within one late in the game but couldn't overcome the Iowa Cubs in a 9-5 loss to the Iowa Cubs on Saturday night in Des Moines.
Saints starter Dereck Rodriguez gave up all six Iowa runs in the first, including back-to-back home runs by Greg Deichmann and Narciso Cook. Rodriguez lasted only two innings.
Spencer Steer homered in the third and Alex Kirilloff in the seventh as the Saints pulled within 6-5, but that was as close as they would get.
Kirilloff went 2-for-3 and scored three runs. He has five extra-base hits in his past nine at-bats. Tim Beckham went 2-for-4 and is 6-for-12 in his first three games with the Saints.
Jake Cave's hitting streak ended at 15 games as he went 0-for-3.
Even though the teams combined for 14 runs and 21 hits, the game took only 2 hours, 16 minutes.
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![A rain delay at Target Field is a fairly normal occurrence. The delay for the high school state championship games will last most of a week.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/JYY7D6OV65B6FOOOJ27BALFML4.jpg?h=91&w=145&fit=crop&bg=999&crop=faces)