Luke Keaschall is playing pro baseball in wrestling territory, and appreciates it

CEDAR RAPIDS — It just seems so appropriate that Luke Keaschall finds himself playing professional baseball in Iowa. In Cedar Rapids.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder has no real ties to the area or the state. Other than perhaps one thing.

He loves wrestling.

Keaschall is from Watsonville, Calif., which is about 90 miles south of San Francisco, near Santa Cruz. He excelled as a baseball player and wrestler for Aptos High School.

“Hawkeye wrestling is amazing,” Keaschall said. “My dad was a wrestler in Nebraska growing up, so he got me into it. I loved it, had a lot of fun. Can’t say enough about wrestling.”

He was pretty good at it, too.

Keaschall came up one match shy of qualifying for the California state tournament as a senior. Keep in mind, there are no classes in the state, so the state champion at each weight is truly THE state champion.

The 21-year-old ultimately chose baseball as the sport he wanted to pursue past high school. He began at the University of San Francisco before transferring to Arizona State, where he blossomed further and into a guy the Minnesota Twins took in the second round of the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft.

He began his pro career with three games with the Rookie-level Florida Complex League Twins, got moved up to low-A Fort Myers and was promoted to the high-A Kernels late in the regular season. Keaschall went 10-for-32 (.313 batting average) in eight regular-season games for Cedar Rapids and is 5-for-10 with a pair of runs scored and a pair of RBIs in three playoff games.

The Kernels play Sunday at noon in Midland, Mich., against the Great Lakes Loons in Game 1 of the Midwest League Championship Series. Game 2 is Tuesday night at 6:35 in C.R., with an if-necessary Game 3 the following night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“Just put your head down and work hard, do the right thing,” Keaschall said. “I got rewarded and have gotten to play with this team that is winning and having a ton of fun. They’ve been super welcoming since I’ve been here. I really like the guys, the coaches are great. It’s a really fun clubhouse to be in.”

Keaschall says he believes there definitely is a correlation between baseball and wrestling.

“Totally. They are much different sports, but the mentality you bring to the field every day (is the same),” he said. “Wrestling is a tough thing, wrestlers can survive in anything. They’re tough as nails. There’s 162 games in baseball, it’s a long year. You’re keeping the same head on: not getting too high or too low. It’s trusting yourself, working really hard. I’m super grateful I got to wrestle. I loved it.”

The Kernels beat Peoria, 9-3, Friday night at home in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Western Division finals. Keaschall and Noah Cardenas had three hits apiece, and Cedar Rapids scored four runs in the first inning to play on top right away.

Peoria won Tuesday night’s Game 1 in Illinois, 4-3, with the Kernels forcing a third game via a 9-4 victory in Game 2 Thursday night at Memorial Stadium.

“We kind of got back to what we’ve been doing all year,” Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman said.

Cedar Rapids finished the regular season with the best record in full-season minor league baseball (82-50), despite losing its final four regular-season games. Great Lakes went 76-55 overall, though it was just 31-35 in the second half.

The Loons beat Fort Wayne, 2-1, Friday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Division finals, with former Iowa Hawkeyes pitcher Jack Dreyer picking up the save. The Kernels and Great Lakes did not play in the regular season.

Dinkelman said he was uncertain who Sunday’s starting pitcher would be for his team. Cedar Rapids is seeking its first Midwest League title since 1994.

“We haven’t seen Great Lakes for a couple of years. It’ll be a new team for us,” he said. “We’ll hopefully do a little studying on them, see what they’ve got. You know, we’ve been solid all year. I like the guys we have on our team. We’re going to go out there and play our game and see what happens.”

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