DECATUR, Ill. – The Coe College baseball team opened its 2025 season with 2-0 victory over UW-Stout Saturday evening in a non-conference neutral site matchup hosted by Millikin University. The Kohawk pitching staff stifled the Blue Devils, allowing just three hits while shutting out the season-opening opponents. Sophomore
Jack Walsh was dealing in the first start of the season, striking out seven hitters in five innings of work as the Dubuque native allowed just one hit and two walks en route to the victory.
Ryan Thoreson plated the eventual game-winning run in the fourth inning, driving
Eli Elsbecker on a clutch two-out single.
Xander Cloudy and
Drew Osterman finished the job out of the bullpen for the Kohawks with Cloudy going three innings before Osterman shut the door for his third-career save. Coe had six hits in total, getting multi-hit games from
Mitchell Eckardt and
Jon Wille.
COE 2 - UW-STOUT 0
Game Facts
- Wille recorded the first hit in the top of the first but was stranded as Stout escaped an early jam. Walsh surrendered the lone hit in the bottom of the frame, giving up a one-out single before a groundout and an inning-ending K. The Kohawks took advantage of a leadoff base runner to take the lead in the fourth as Elsbecker reached on a hit batter before moving to second on a groundout. Thoreson delivered the game-winning hit two batters later with two outs, driving home Elsbecker with a single to left. Coe picked up a crucial insurance run in the top of the sixth, using a pair of leadoff walks to set the table. Jack Allison drove home the final run of the game with a sacrifice fly, making it 2-0. Cloudy entered in the sixth and worked around a leadoff single in the frame before an easy seventh. He returned for the eighth and despite hitting two batters kept it a two-run game heading into the ninth. Coe left a chance at more runs on the table in the top of the ninth but Osterman slammed the door shut in the bottom, recording a game-winning strikeout after an error and one-out single.
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