Mitchell Eckardt played his final college baseball season for Coe with a torn ACL

CEDAR RAPIDS — The super senior six.

They did so much for the Coe College baseball program in their careers. Won a ton of games, including this season, made it to the NCAA tournament a couple of times.

They were good, they were tough. They were epitomized by Mitchell Eckardt.

The fifth-year infielder from the St. Louis suburbs played his final game Saturday afternoon at the American Rivers Conference tournament at Veterans Memorial Stadium. It was a heart-piercing loss to Nebraska Wesleyan, 6-5.

Wesleyan scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning to eliminate the Kohawks (28-13). A two-out, two-run single glanced slightly off the pitcher, then a diving shortstop to bleed into center field for the winning hit.

Top-seeded Buena Vista scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Nebraska Wesleyan, 8-7, in the championship game. The Beavers won two of their three games here that way, assuring themselves a NCAA Division III tournament berth.

“Obviously not what you expect going into the ninth inning up 5-2,” Eckardt said. “It was kind of a shock to the system when it actually happened. Then we couldn’t get a run across the bottom half of the inning. That’s baseball. Sometimes it goes your way, sometime it doesn’t. It’s unfortunate.”

Eckardt went 1-for-5 in his finale, hitting .300 this season, walking more times than he struck out, stealing eight bases. All with a bad knee.

He was a starting defensive back for Coe’s playoff football team in the fall before tearing his ACL in the sixth game. Undeterred, he decided to hold off on surgically repairing it.

“I knew if I’d gotten surgery that would probably push me out of the baseball season,” he said. “So I just threw a brace on it. I had to be there for my guys. The pain level? Ah, good enough for me to play. It hurt a little bit, but you throw the brace on, take some Tylenol and go. This was my last chance. I didn’t care.”

“He didn’t have to come back, being a fifth-year senior,” said Coe Coach Steve Cook. “We kind of half-joked about it, then it became very real. He said ‘I’m coming. I’m going to put a brace on it, and we’re going to see how good I can be.’ He was darn good for us all year. I’ve never seen anybody do what he’s done. Not one medical person, I don’t think, advised it to be done. I told him after the game he’s a true warrior. He’s a warrior.”

Eckardt also is a member of the U.S. Army Reserve in Missouri, missing a couple of athletic contests in his college career because he had active weekend duty. A special kid.

Just one of several on this Coe team, Cook said. The Kohawks dropped six of their final seven games but they won twice as many they lost this season, were ranked in the NCAA Division III top 25 most of the spring.

The super seniors, who had one more year of athletics eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic that wiped out 2021, led the way. They’d be Eckardt, infielder-pitcher Tyce Johnson, infielder Jack Allison, pitcher-outfielder Jordan Joselit, outfielder Anthony Ranallo and pitcher Drew Osterman.

“Anybody that’s willing to kind of put life on hold for a year. They’re not doing it because of me, that’s for darn sure,” Cook said. “They’re doing it because of the guys they’re playing with. These are there buddies, on and off the field. That connection, I remember it when I played, just runs so deep.

“This group accomplished a lot, made a couple of NCAA tournaments. They wanted to come back and see what they could do with their friends and teammates one more time. I’m proud of them. We had a lot of wins this year. It was a good season.”

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