DECORAH, Iowa - The Coe College baseball team locked up its second-straight American Rivers Conference regular-season championship on Friday afternoon, splitting the series-opening doubleheader with Luther College. The Kohawks took game one 8-1 behind a solid pitching effort from starter TJ Deardorff but the Norse bounced back in game two and fended off a late rally from Coe to earn the split. The results moved the Kohawks to 30-5 overall and 26-4 in the A-R-C while Luther moved to 27-11 and 23-7 in the league.
 
GAME 1 
COE 8 - LUTHER 1
Coe got off to a great start in the series-opening game, scoring three runs in the top of the third inning to give Deardorff some room to work with. Tyler Elliott led off the inning with a single to third base as a Norse error in Coe's next at-bat allowed Isaac Evans to reach safely with both runners advancing an extra 90 feet. Riley LeGrand opened the scoring in the Kohawks' next at-bat, singling to center field to score Elliott while picking up his 29th RBI of the season. TJ Johnson then reached on another Luther error, scoring two more as Evans and LeGrand both scored on the play. Jordan Kaplan then drew a two-out walk and advanced to second on a balk but a fly-out to center got the Norse out of the inning. 
 
Both team's bats went cold for the next two innings as the starting pitchers dominated the game but Luther finally got to Deardorff in the bottom of the sixth. The Norse got back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and later loaded the bases with two outs. Luther's run came on a Kohawk error on a mishandled ground ball which allowed Josh Matanich to score. The Kohawk offense picked up Deardorff in the top of the seventh inning and put the game out of reach, pushing across five insurance runs to eliminate any comeback chances. Matthew Schrader walked to start the inning and then came around to score on Evans' one-out double to left. Kaplan then made it 6-1 with an RBI single to right field, picking up his 23rd of the season. Jared White delivered the knockout blow with a two-out, two-RBI single to center field which scored Jacob Henry and Luke Smailes to make it 8-1. Back-to-back singles in the bottom of the inning forced Coach Cook to turn to his bullpen but TJ Johnson came in and got three-straight fly-outs to end the game and clinch the conference title. 
 
GAME 2
LUTHER 6 - COE 3
Luther raced out to an early 3-0 lead in the second game of the afternoon, getting a trio of RBI hits from Luke Plunkett, Cullen Stamp and Matanich in the first two innings. The Kohawks answered with one run in the top of the fourth on an RBI-single from Kaplan, which scored TJ Johnson to cut the deficit to three. Again, the pitchers for both teams settled into the game and combined for a scoreless fifth, sixth and seventh innings but the Norse added key insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. Luther got the first two runners on after a hit-by-pitch and a single as it then got back-to-back RBI singles which made it 5-1. The Norse got their final run of the game on a sacrifice fly to right field, making it 6-1 heading to the ninth. Coe earned consecutive walks to kick-start the ninth and later got a pair of two-out, RBI hits to cut the deficit to three but Luther got a groundout with the go-ahead run at the plate to earn the split. 
 
Up next: Coe will end its regular-season campaign on Saturday with the final two games of the series with the Norse. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Decorah. 
 
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