CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa-- The No. 12/16 Wartburg baseball team (33-11 overall) fell 10-4 to Luther (32-12) in the Iowa Conference Tournament Championship game Saturday. The Norse received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and the Knights will wait to hear if they receive an at-large bid late Sunday/early Monday.


This also marked the second time in the tournament's history that Wartburg was eliminated by Luther which occurred in 2007, when Wartburg was also the top seed.

2007 #1 seed
Wartburg, 12 BV 2 (8 innings)
Luther, 10 Wartburg 6 (10 innings)
Wartburg, 8 Simpson 3
Luther 11, Wartburg 8

The Orange and Black took the 2-0 lead in the second as senior Milton Croes (Noord, Aruba) hit his second career triple and sophomore Zach Hovick (Roland) drove him in on his double. Junior Mike Brown (Bettendorf) brings in Hovick on his single to right field.

Wartburg added to its margin in the third as junior Jacob Thumann (DeWitt) doubled in sophomore Blake Mahoney (Des Moines).

Luther got on the board in the fourth on an RBI groundout and took the 5-3 lead in the fifth as it plated three on a three-run double and one more on an RBI single.
 
The Knights tallied their final run of the game in the fifth as Thumann scored on Croes' single to center field.

Brown and Croes each went 2-4 and Thumann extended his hitting streak to 11 games and has reached base safely in the past 15. Both streaks mark a season-long.      

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