ST. LOUIS (AP) – Jake Arrieta remained unbeaten on the season despite allowing as many as four runs for the first time in nearly a year and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-8 on Wednesday.

Arrieta (9-0) joined the White Sox’s Chris Sale as the only nine-game winners in the majors.

Arrieta allowed four runs in a regular-season game for the first time since June 16, 2015.

Arrieta became the first Cub to win his first nine decisions since Kenny Holtzman in 1967 and it is the best start to a season for the franchise since Jim McCormick went 16-0 in 1886.

Kris Bryant hit a three-run homer and Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist each drove in two for the Cubs.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The St. Louis Cardinals acquired outfielder Jose Martinez from the Kansas City Royals for cash considerations on Wednesday. Martinez, 27, was playing for Triple-A Omaha and has been assigned to Triple-A Memphis. He was hitting .298 with three home runs and 18 RBIs at Omaha. The Cardinals moved right-handed pitcher Mitch Harris (elbow) to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Martinez on the 40-man roster.

GIRLS

Perry 7, Atlantic 1 (Trojans end regular season 5-11)
Boone 5, Carroll 2
Council Bluffs, Abraham Lincoln 4, Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson 1
Glenwood 3, Tri-Center, Neola 2 (2OT)
Kuemper Catholic, Carroll 5, Denison-Schleswig 3 (PKs 3-1)
Lewis Central 6, St. Albert, Council Bluffs 0
Nodaway Valley/AC/WCV 6, Harlan 0

Softball

Carroll 8, Denison-Schleswig 5
Creston 11, Glenwood 2
IKM-Manning 11, AHSTW 0
Kuemper Catholic 8, Harlan 1
Lewis Central 9, St. Albert 5
Logan-Magnolia 13, Griswold 1
Missouri Valley 8, Tri-Center, Neola 0
Mount Ayr 16, East Mills 1
OA-BCIG 12, Maple Valley-Anthon Oto 9 (8)
Panorama 16, Des Moines Christian 9
Shenandoah 3, Red Oak 2
Sidney 13, Stanton 4
Treynor 10, Riverside, Oakland 0
Underwood 16, Audubon 6

Baseball

Council Bluffs, Abraham Lincoln 2, Atlantic 0
Audubon 3, Underwood 2
Creston 4, Glenwood 0
Des Moines Christian 8, Panorama, Panora 2
East Union 4, Orient-Macksburg 1
Glidden-Ralston 13, East Mills 3 (6 inn)
Glidden-Ralston 15, East Mills 3 (5 inn)
Griswold 6, Logan-Magnolia 3
Harlan 17, Kuemper Catholic 5
IKM-Manning 4, AHSTW, Avoca 0
Lewis Central 9, St. Albert, Council Bluffs 1
Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto 7, OA-BCIG 4
Murray 13, Lamoni 0 (6 innings)
Norwalk 3, Nodaway Valley 2
Shenandoah 13, Bedford 9
Southwest Valley 14, Essex 1
Spencer 13, Denison-Schleswig 1
Stanton 15, Sidney 3
Treynor 15, Riverside 3
Tri-Center, Neola 3, Missouri Valley 2
West Central Valley, Stuart 3, Guthrie Center 2

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field.

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The Iowa Western Community College baseball team won’t need Google Maps or GPS to find its way to Grand Junction, Colorado. The Reivers are headed to the NJCAA Division I World Series for the 10th time in the last 14 years and while the 11 and a half hour route remains the same, it never gets old. The Reivers not only have experience playing in the World Series but winning it as well. The will be in search of their fourth title since 2010.

Iowa Western plays Santa Fe College out of Florida in Saturday morning’s tournament opener. Coach Marc Rardin says the key is to not get caught up in the moment. Iowa Western is 50-13 on the season.

(Learfield Sports)

Iowa coach Rick Heller would like to see Omaha and TD Ameritrade Park become the permanent home of the Big Ten Conference Tournament. The home of the College World Series will host the league tournament for a second time this week and the Big Ten announced an agreement in April to have Omaha serve as host from 2018 through 2022.

Heller says the fan support in Omaha gives the tournament an outstanding atmosphere. The championship game in 2014 set an all-time attendance record of 19.965 fans. Iowa is the eighth seed in the tournament and plays regular season champion Minnesota in Wednesday’s opening round. Nebraska is the second seed. The Hawkeyes played their way into the tournament by winning five of their last six games and Heller hopes they can maintain that momentum.

Iowa sends sophomore C.J. Eldred to the mound and will face Gopher ace Matt Fiedler. Heller says starting pitching sets the tone in a tournament. Minnesota took two out of three games from the Hawkeyes back in early April.

(Learfield Sports)

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Duke will play host to Michigan State and North Carolina will visit Indiana in the marquee matchups of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The leagues and ESPN announced the matchups for the three-day event that features 14 games from Nov. 28-30.

The other matchups include Minnesota at Florida State, Wake Forest at Northwestern, Syracuse at Wisconsin, Pittsburgh at Maryland, Iowa at Notre Dame, Georgia Tech at Penn State, North Carolina State at Illinois, Purdue at Louisville, Ohio State at Virginia, Virginia Tech at Michigan, Rutgers at Miami and Nebraska at Clemson.

Starting times haven’t been announced. The Tar Heels beat the Hoosiers in an East Regional semifinal in March. The only ACC team left out of the challenge this year is Boston College, which finished last season in last place.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jason Hammel pitched 7 1-3 stingy innings and had a two-run double in the Chicago’s six-run first as the Cubs went on to rout the St. Louis Cardinals 12-3 on Tuesday night. Michael Wacha (2-5) gave up a career-worst eight runs in four innings and has lost five consecutive decisions for the first time. The 24-year-old right-hander was a 17-game winner last season and the NL championship series MVP as a rookie in 2013, but this season has a 5.04 ERA.

Jorge Soler drew a bases-loaded walk in the first and hit a two-run home run in the fifth. The six-run inning was a season-best for the NL Central leaders, who snapped their first three-game losing streak of the season. David Ross had an RBI double for his 500th career hit and Kris Bryant had an RBI single in the outburst.

Hammel (6-1) bounced back from his first loss in his previous start.

SOFTBALL

Creston 15, Southwest Valley 0 (3 innings)
Fremont-Mills 11, Essex 3
IKM-Manning 4, Charter Oak-Ute 2
Guthrie Center 9, CAM 6
Sidney 13, Bedford 1 (4 innings)
St. Albert 5, CB Abraham Lincoln 5
Wayne 12, Diagonal 0

BASEBALL

Clarinda 6, Bedford 5 (8 innings)
Coon Rapids-Bayard 13, Newell-Fonda 8
Creston 16, Southwest Valley 6 (6 innings)
East Mills 34, Clarinda Academy 3 (5 innings)
Fremont-Mills 16, Essex 1 (4 innings)
Glenwood 7, Tri-Center 0
Glidden-Ralston 20, West Central Valley 2
Lenox 11, Orient-Macksburg 0 (5 innings)
Martensdale St Marys 2, Guthrie Center 0