DECORAH, Iowa - The Coe College baseball team swept a doubleheader at Luther College on Saturday afternoon, marking the second-straight season in which the Kohawks have won every American Rivers Conference series. Coe took the opening game 8-2 which featured four RBIs from Jordan Kaplan and a six-inning outing from TJ Johnson, who struck out six batters. The Kohawks, who scored the first four runs of game two, fought off a late rally from Luther before the game was called due to weather. Coe, which is the top seed in next week's American Rivers Conference Tournament, ends the regular season with a record of 32-5 overall and 28-4 in the A-R-C while Luther, which is the second seed, ends the year at 27-13 and 23-9 in the league. 
 
GAME 1 
COE 8 - LUTHER 2
The Norse opened the scoring in the third game of the series, as Luke Plunkett delivered a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning. Luther then made it 2-0 in the third on a sacrifice fly from Kelby Johnson as Cullen Stamp scored on the play. The Kohawks finally got on the board in the top of the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly from Jordan Kaplan, who picked up his 24th RBI of the season. Following a scoreless fifth, the Kohawks pushed two across in the sixth and took their first lead of the afternoon. Isaac Evans singled with one out and stole second before Riley LeGrand reached on a Norse error which allowed Evans to get to third. TJ Johnson then grounded out to third base but picked up the RBI as Evans scored from third. Kaplan then drove in another run with an RBI single, scoring LeGrand while putting Coe in front. 
 
TJ Johnson, Coe's game one starter, returned to the mound for the sixth inning and despite surrendering a single, he managed to get a double-play ball to secure the shutdown inning. The Kohawks broke the game open in the top of the seventh, adding five insurance runs in the frame on five hits. Jacob Henry doubled to start the inning before an infield single from Matthew Schrader put runners on the corners. After a groundout got Luther its first out of the inning, Daniel Hawes recorded a bunt single and picked up a clutch RBI to put Coe up 4-2. Two batters later, LeGrand made it 5-2 with a sacrifice fly, scoring Schrader while earning his 30th RBI of the year. The icing on the cake came from the Kohawks next two batters as TJ Johnson and Jordan Kaplan recorded RBI hits to put the game out of reach for Luther. Coach Cook then turned to Kaplan for the final three outs of the game as the righty came in and worked a scoreless seventh to win the game. 
 
GAME 2
COE 4 - LUTHER 3 (GAME CALLED DUE TO WEATHER AFTER 6)
The Kohawks' first two batters of game two reached safely as Evans advanced all the way to third after a Norse error. LeGrand then picked up his second RBI of the day with a single to center and later moved to second on a bunt single from Kaplan. Henry managed to reach in Coe's next at-bat on another bunt but a double-play got Luther out of the early jam with limited damage. The game went scoreless for the next four innings as Kohawk starter Matthew Mittelmark worked a 1-2-3 frame in the second and fourth while surrendering just three hits in his first five innings of action. Coe picked up Mittelmark in the top of the sixth inning and scored three valuable insurance runs on four hits. Kaplan led the inning off with a hit by pitch and advanced to third as the next two batters grounded out. The Kohawks then got a clutch, two-out double to left-center from Deardorff, scoring Kaplan from third. Coe then got three-straight singles from Tyler Elliott, Jack Allison and Evans with Elliott and Evans recording RBI hits to put the Kohawks in front 4-0. Luther responded in the bottom of the sixth inning with three runs of its own, getting a two-out, two-RBI single to cut the deficit to one. The Kohawks did have a chance to bat in the top of the seventh inning and managed to push one run across but the game was called due to lightning and made official after six innings of play.  
 
Up next: Coe will be the number one seed in next week's American Rivers Conference tournament which is a two-pod format. The Kohawks will play in Cedar Rapids at Mount Mercy University on Thursday, May 20 in a matchup against the winner of the 8/9 play-in game. 
 
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