CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa-- The Wartburg baseball team (31-12 overall) won its 10th Iowa Conference Tournament Championship Saturday in the 6-1 win over Coe (24-18). With the victory, the Knights received the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will learn their opponent and game location Monday.



Photo gallery

Junior Clay Henning (Plymouth, Wis.) broke up the no-hitter in the fourth. With his hit, he moved his reached safely streak this season to 38, which is every game he has played in, His overall streak is now 40 which dates back to last year's NCAA Tournament.

The Kohawks had the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, but the next batter grounded out to first to end the threat.

Junior Zach Hovick (Roland) drove in the first two runs of the game as classmate Cody Hyler (Des Moines) and Mike Brown (Bettendorf) scored on his single to center field. Junior Eric Willis (Waverly) moved his hitting streak to 13 as he plated classmate David Fitzgerald (Dubuque). Junior Blake Mahoney (Des Moines) drove in Hovick on his sacrifice fly to give the Orange and Black the 4-0 lead..

In the bottom of the sixth, Fitzgerald scored on senior Austin Lectenberg's (DeWitt) single down the right field line to make it 5-0.

Coe scored its only run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the seventh and Mahoney tallied the final run for Wartburg in the bottom of the frame.

Senior Michael Knouse (Davenport) had his longest outing of the season as he threw 6.0 innings and had seven strikeouts, just three shy of his career high.

Waterloo Courier recap

Other notes:
-Wartburg is 60-30 all-time in the IIAC Tournament
-The Knights had been in the championship game the last three years (2015, 2016, 2017) but came up short in the previous two years.
-The 10 Tournament Championships is the most by one school in the tournament's history. (Coe is second with four).
-Wartburg will make its third-straight appearance and 14th overall in the NCAA Tournament

KCRG highlights