CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The second-seeded Coe College baseball team kept its American Rivers Conference postseason title hopes alive on Saturday with a pair of victories, defeating top-seeded Luther College 15-4 in seven innings before topping fourth-seeded Wartburg College 9-6 in the second game of the day. Coe, which will face Wartburg tomorrow at 11 AM for the A-R-C title, opened the day with a bang as the offense bashed out 16 hits and 15 runs en route to a run-rule victory over the top-seeded Norse. The Kohawks took an early lead with two runs in the first inning and piled on with two more in the second and an explosive eight-spot in the fourth to take a commanding 12-1 lead.
Ryan Brosius capped the inning with one swing of the bat, driving home four runs with a grand slam that gave Coe plenty of insurance.
Michael Matejka pitched 3.1 innings in relief and got the job done for Coe, slamming the door shut in the seventh to keep the Kohawks alive. Wartburg got a strong start in game two, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the first to grab the momentum. The Kohawks quickly responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of defensive miscues while getting RBIs from
Jake Mitchell, Brent Yonkovic, and
Austin Gomez. The Kohawks added to their lead with two in the fifth and two in the sixth, making a large enough gap for the Kohawk bullpen to finish off the win.
Evan Bender recorded the final six outs in shutout fashion, getting a double play in the top of the ninth en route to the save.
GAME ONE
#2 COE 15 - #1 LUTHER 4 - 7 INNINGS
- Coe got the lead early in the opening game as Ryan THoreson doubled in the first and later scored on a groundout from Eli Elsbecker. Yonkovic extended the lead before the end of the inning, driving home Jon Wille on a single. Coe got another two runs in the top of the second as Wille doubled home a run before an error made it 4-1. The Kohawks' big inning came in the fourth, using four hits and five free passes to spark the scoring. Jack Casey, Thoreson, and Wille reached consecutively to load the bases before a wild pitch scored the fifth run for Coe. Four straight hitters reached later in the inning to extend the lead, capped off by the Brosius salami. The Kohawks made it 15-2 in the top of the fifth, scoring three more on three hits, including a run-scoring single from Isaiah Espey. Luther did its best to extend the game with a run in the sixth and one in the seventh, but Matejka buckled down and clinched the victory for the Kohawks.
GAME TWO
#2 COE 9 - #4 WARTBURG 6
- Wartburg started fast in game two, pushing two runs across in the top of the first on two RBI singles. Coe immediately responded, picking up Trevor Morse with a five-spot that featured a two-run double from Austin Gomez to make it 5-2. Morse settled in and tossed two more innings, allowing just one run as he left with a 5-3 advantage. The Kohawk bats picked up two insurance runs in back-to-back innings, extending the lead in the fifth and sixth. Jake Mitchell delivered a clutch two-run single in the fifth but Wartburg managed to pull one of the runs back in the sixth with a run-scoring single off Brady Alexander. The offense got the run back and another in the home half as Ryan Thoreson plated a pair of Kohawks with a bases-loaded single to center field for 9-4. Connor Maiers relieved Alexander after a strong 3.0 innings in the seventh, limiting Wartburg to two runs in a potentially explosive frame. Bender finished off the remainder of the game, working around a two-out single in the eighth before a double play ball eliminated a leadoff walk in the clinching ninth.
#KohawkNation #TalonsOut
Visit https://kohawkathletics.com/ for complete coverage of Coe College Athletics
Like Coe College Athletics on Facebook
Follow @CoeAthletics on X
Follow @CoeAthletics on Instagram
Coe Athletics Mobile App - Android | iPhone
