Coe baseball takes first step toward NCAA tournament bid with win over Loras in American Rivers Conference tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — Coe baseball coach Steve Cook pictured a win differently, but he’ll take it.

In the postseason, the goal is to survive and advance.

Top-seeded Coe used solid pitching and a four-run third inning to scratch out a 6-4 win over Loras in its opening game of the American Rivers Conference baseball tournament Thursday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.

“We wouldn’t draw it up that way, necessarily,” Cook said. “I didn’t think we were all that great at the plate, ultimately. We had enough and took advantage of things when we did.”

The versatile Kohawks (27-14) have been successful in a variety of ways. They can rely on different facets and adapt to what is needed in each contest. Cook has talked about the importance of that ability.

“We pursue that in the way we work in practice,” Cook said. “We want to create a team that has a lot of different ways and can we defend our way there, hit our way there, pitch our way there or a little of everything.

“Today was just one version. We’ve won a lot of ball games other ways and we’ll take this version, right now. Tomorrow, as we well know, it could look a lot different.”

The theme entering the tournament was for pitchers to pepper the strike zone. Avoid walks and make opponents earn each run with their bats. Against a good-hitting Duhawk lineup, Kohawks pitchers scattered 14 hits but didn’t allow any walks or hit batsmen.

“Honestly, I thought the best part of our game was our guys threw strikes,” Cook said. “We pitched well. That’s a really good hitting team.

“We weren’t going to give away freebies. We were going to play defense. Keep the walks out and we did that today.”

Trevor Morse came in to pitch 2 2/3 innings of relief and Drew Osterman got the last four outs for the save. Osterman returned from Tommy John surgery last weekend in the Luther series. He shut down Loras to end it.

“We knew we were ready to line him up,” Cook said. “That’s what he’s been working really hard to come back for. I’m really proud of him, coming into that situation as a senior and be able to lay it on the line for the team in a tight moment.

“A lot of hard work paid off for him.”

Former Cedar Rapids Prairie prep Caden Richards produced a serviceable start, going five innings and improving to 6-1. He tried to use a sinking fastball to induce groundouts and prevent Loras from driving the wide outfield gaps.

“I mainly focused on throwing strikes,” Richards said. “I tried to limit the walks and trying to get weak contact for most of the game was big.”

Coe’s offense provided a boost in the third, erasing a 2-0 deficit. Austin Gomez led off with a walk and moved to second on an error when Mitchell Eckardt reached on a fielder’s choice. Jon Wille and Jake Brosius drew consecutive walks to score Gomez. Reid Rausch was hit by a pitch to bring in Eckardt and tie the game.

Ryan Thoreson and Jack Allison followed with back-to-back RBI singles and the Kohawks didn’t trail again.

Creighton Kreshel drove in Tyce Johnson for one in the fifth and Rausch’s sixth-inning double scored Eckardt to cap Coe’s scoring.

“We had some quality at-bats where we ended up walking,” Cook said. “That’s part of our game. We’ve got to be able to fight hard and find ways to get on.”

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Coe won the regular-season conference title. The Kohawks are trying to earn the A-R-C’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division III national tournament. They know they’ll need a better version to complete that mission.

“It’s a big focus for us,” Richards said. “Two weeks ago, Coach Cook brought us all together and said it’s playoff baseball. We have to go. We have a chance to win the conference. We checked one off the list. Now we have to check off the tournament.”

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