Jack Allison emerges as an offensive bright spot for Coe baseball

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jack Allison figured out his swing in recent weeks.

Coe’s junior third baseman has come on strong as a consistent contributor, making his way to the No. 2 spot in the batting order. A space comfortable to him.

“I like it,” Allison said. “You get up in the first inning and have a shot to drive in some runs. There are always guys on so it’s nice. It’s a fun spot to play.”

Allison was one of the offensive bright spots for the fifth-seeded Kohawks, tallying two of their five hits in a 6-4 loss to Dubuque in the first round of the American Rivers Conference baseball tournament Thursday at Memorial Stadium. Allison improved his batting average to .368 after the tournament opener, recording a two-run double for his 32nd hit of the season.

“It was nice to contribute, personally,” Allison said. “Would have liked more all-around for our team. It was good to get pitches to hit and put good swings on them.”

Allison is nestled between leadoff hitter Mitchell Eckardt (.371) and Jacob Brosius (.348). The trio has been a strong lefty-righty-lefty combo, helping Coe enter the tournament with the A-R-C’s second-best team batting average behind top-seeded Buena Vista.

“He’s really come on the second half of the season, which has been a lot of fun for us,” Coe Coach Steve Cook said. “It has helped our lineup at the top. We were able to plug him in at the (No. 2) spot between Mitch and Brosius. He’s done a great job.”

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Cook said Allison has emerged as an offensive leader and has come up clutch for the Kohawks the last three to four weeks.

“I’m just seeing pitches well and getting on time,” Allison said. “Hitting balls hard is my goal.”

Eckardt and Allison started the bottom of the first with consecutive singles, but the offense stalled after a strikeout-throw-out double play on a steal attempt. Dubuque starter Edwards Rosas retired 11 straight batters from that point.

The Spartans scored one in the first and three in the second, adding two more in the fourth. The last two were assisted by two Kohawk errors for Dubuque’s 6-0 lead.

“We didn’t play very well in all three facets early,” Cook said. “We settled in on pitching and defense but we already spotted them six before that happened.

“Offensively, we couldn’t seem to get a rhythm going. We just had too many flyball outs and that’s not what you want to do in this park.”

The Kohawks rallied in the fifth. Tyler Elliot reached on an error to lead off. Reid Rausch added a two-out base hit followed by a James Vanhooser walk. Eckardt hustled down the line, forcing an errant throw on a chopper to third, scoring Elliott and Rausch.

Allison stepped to the plate and lined a double into the left-field corner, plating Vanhooser and Eckardt, who raced around from first to pull Coe within two.

“I saw a pitch that came up and knew it was a curveball,” Allison said. “I sat on it and hit it hard to left field.”

Dubuque was able to chase starter Matthew Chapman from the game after 2 2/3 innings. Tyce Johnson held the Spartans to just three hits and two unearned runs with five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.

“It was huge,” Cook said. “It was really big for him, too. He’s had kind of an up-and-down year for us as a junior leader. A lot of that has been injury based. For him to come out and perform the way that he did was nice to see.”

Dubuque lost to Buena Vista 5-0 in the first semifinal at Memorial Stadium.

Coe also remained alive in the tournament, beating No. 6 Wartburg, 4-3, in 11 innings in an elimination game.

Former Cedar Rapids Jefferson prep Kaden Haller ripped a two-run double, scoring Elliott and Creighton Kreshel to end it. Haller had one of the Kohawks’ 10 hits. Brosius led Coe with two hits and added an RBI. Michael Bonner earned the victory for Coe (23-16).

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com