Coe baseball team goes to Wisconsin

CEDAR RAPIDS - Coe College baseball coach Steve Cook was asked Saturday afternoon if there was any way his team, which had just won the Iowa Conference Tournament, wouldn't be invited to a NCAA Division III Regional at Waterloo's Municipal Stadium.

It made complete sense. The Kohawks are 60 miles down the road and would be given some sort of tangible reward for sweeping through the tournament, including beating nationally 14th-ranked Wartburg twice.

'I just don't see how they could move us (somewhere else),” Cook said. 'All they talk about is money, money, money. It would just blow my mind if we didn't go to Waterloo. But you never know, either. You never know.”

Yeah, you never know. Not only was Coe not sent to Waterloo, it was sent to an eight-team regional in La Crosse, Wis., that features defending D-III national champ Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The Kohawks (31-12) kick off the double-elimination tournament with a 10 a.m. game Wednesday against St. John's (Minn.). Coe is the regional's fifth seed, St. John's (26-14).

Whitewater is the top seed, followed by Wisconsin-La Crosse, Washington (Mo.), Concordia-Chicago, St. Scholastica and Ripon.

Meanwhile, Wartburg was given an at-large bid to the D-III tournament, which consists of 56 schools, and will host the Waterloo Regional. There are only six teams in that regional: the Knights (32-12), Anderson (Ind.), Carthage, Greenville, Webster and Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

That regional also begins Wednesday, though exact pairings were not immediately available. Regional winners advance to the NCAA Division III national tournament.