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Buena Vista beats Coe again, this time 3-0 at American Rivers Conference baseball tourney
Pitcher Mark Eddie brilliant in a four-hit shutout
May. 9, 2025 5:08 pm, Updated: May. 9, 2025 5:56 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS - It’s chapter one of that great book “Favorite Cliches In Sports.” Or maybe it’s the fourth or fifth chapter.
At any rate, they say it’s difficult to beat a team of similar quality twice in a row. Doesn’t matter if it’s football, basketball, hockey, baseball or Tiddlywinks.
Yet Buena Vista’s baseball team has knocked off Coe four times in a little less than a week. That included 3-0 Friday afternoon in the winner’s bracket of the American Rivers Conference tournament at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Keep in mind that BV (31-10 overall) trailed the Kohawks (28-12) by two games in the ARC standings going into the teams’ regular season-ending series last weekend at Storm Lake. The Beavers took all three games to win the conference championship.
And now this.
“I just know that we have been on the other side of that, too, and sometimes it feels like (an opponent) is insurmountable,” said Buena Vista Coach Steve Eddie. “But the fact of the matter is it’s a break here, a break there that seems to be on your side. That’s exactly what happened today. A couple of breaks went our way. When you have two evenly matched teams, it comes down to one or two plays. A call here, a call there, a blooper falls in, whatever.”
The difference in this game wasn’t necessarily a call here or blooper there as much as it was Mark Eddie. The BV senior pitcher (and son of the coach) was out and out great in a complete-game four-hitter.
The right hander, the ARC’s pitcher of the year, didn’t overpower Coe’s hitters, striking out just three, but he mixed speeds and threw strikes with everything. The Kohawks had multiple baserunners in only one inning (the first), and that was the lone time they got anyone as far as second base.
This was the first time all season Coe was shut out and just the second time Eddie (9-1) threw a complete game. The other time was last week, when he beat the Kohawks, 4-1.
He scattered nine hits there. That was good, but this start was even better.
“I knew that I had to kind of adjust just a little bit, because they are really smart hitters,” Mark Eddie said. “I threw a lot of pitches against them last week, so they’ve kind of seen everything. Just tried to mix it up against different guys and keep them off balance. Evan (Taylor), our catcher, did a great job of kind of feeling the same thing out and kind of reading swings, figuring out what might work. Just tried to avoid hard contact.”
Poor Ethan O’Donnell. Coe’s starting pitcher came up on the short end going head to head against Eddie again, despite throwing a complete game as well.
Buena Vista scratched across a run in the third inning, then added two huge runs in the eighth, including a Taylor solo home run to right. The Beavers are in the championship round of this double-elimination tournament Saturday afternoon, having two chances to win once and qualify for a NCAA Division III regional.
Coe is scheduled to play an 11 a.m. game Saturday against either Luther or Nebraska Wesleyan. The winner of that game advances to play Buena Vista.
“They are a really good team, and that’s why they won the league,” said Coe Coach Steve Cook. “Hopefully we’ll get another chance tomorrow.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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