CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The No. 4-seeded Wartburg College baseball team secured its spot in the American Rivers Conference Tournament championship game for the first time since 2022 with a 13-inning, 10-7 victory over No. 2-seeded Coe College Friday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Trailing 7-2 after four innings, the Knights (25-14 overall) responded with eight unanswered runs over the final nine frames, highlighted by a three-run outburst in the top of the 13th inning to complete the comeback.
The victory also marked the 100th career coaching win for head coach
Casey Klunder. In five seasons as a collegiate head coach, Klunder has totaled 100 wins, including 69 during his three seasons leading the Wartburg program.
Wartburg advances to Saturday's A-R-C Tournament championship game scheduled for 2 p.m. The Knights will face the winner of Saturday's 11 a.m. elimination game between Coe and the winner of Friday night's contest between Luther, Loras and Simpson.
Wartburg needs just one win to capture the tournament title, while an "if necessary" championship game would be played Sunday.
Keegan Schmitt opened the top of the third inning with a double off the left field wall, but the Knights were unable to capitalize after he was thrown out at the plate later in the frame to keep the game scoreless.
Coe (28-13 overall) struck first with a run in the bottom half of the third to take a 1-0 advantage.
Wartburg answered immediately in the fourth as
Andrew Gallegos launched his 10th home run of the season to even the score at 1-1. The Knights continued to apply pressure with five consecutive hits later in the inning, taking a 2-1 lead before stranding three runners to end the frame.
The Kohawks responded with a six-run fourth inning to regain control at 7-2. Starter
Nicholas Nin exited after allowing four earned runs on four hits, while Coe added five more runs against reliever
Cael Funk behind four extra-base hits in the inning.
In the fifth,
Andrew Robinson was hit by a pitch for the 27th time this season to begin the inning before Gallegos delivered an RBI double into the right-center gap to trim the deficit to 7-3.
Right-hander
Logan Sullivan settled the game down out of the bullpen, allowing just one baserunner in the fifth inning. Wartburg added another run later in the frame when Robinson singled home Schmitt to cut the margin to three.
The Knights continued to chip away in the eighth inning.
Bode Nagelmaker blasted his third home run of the season to lead off the frame before Schmitt doubled to left field. After a sacrifice bunt from
Liam Bender moved the tying run into scoring position,
Griffin Troha lifted a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run contest at 7-6.
Sullivan dominated over the middle innings, retiring the side in order in the eighth before Wartburg pulled even in the ninth. With two outs,
Charlie Krueger extended the inning with a single and later scored on
Tanner Jackson's RBI double into the gap to tie the game at 7-7.
Sullivan's outing ended after he hit the leadoff batter in the bottom of the ninth.
Zach Byrne entered and induced a groundout before
Miles Mudd recorded the final two outs to force extra innings.
Both teams remained scoreless until the 13th inning when Robinson collected his third hit of the afternoon to begin the frame. Wartburg again rallied with two outs, scoring three runs behind Nagelmaker's go-ahead bases-loaded walk and Schmitt's two-RBI single to give the Knights a 10-7 lead.
Conner Funk (4-1), who entered in the 12th inning, worked around two Coe hits in the bottom of the 13th to secure Wartburg's first berth in the A-R-C Tournament championship game since 2022.
Klunder stated, "This team has been resilient all year, and down 7-2, they just kept doing what they do".
"In tournament play, you need a pitcher to step up and Logan (Sullivan) probably pitched more today than he has the last month and he kept putting up zeros for us and gave our offense a chance to catch up", Klunder said.
Sullivan tossed 4.0 innings, allowed no runs on just two hits and struck out four Kohawks.
NOTES
Schmitt went 5-for-7 with two doubles and two RBI…Schmitt ties six other all-time Knights with two doubles in the same tournament game…Schmitt is now 9-for-16 in the tournament…Wartburg was one hit shy of tying the all-time tournament record of 18 hits (5/9/2009 vs Coe)…The Knights contested their longest game in history with 13.0 innings pitched (11.0 IP vs Dubuque on 5/12/05)…Wartburg is 70-42 all-time in the league tournament…9-3 as the No. 4 seed…The last time a 4-seed won the A-R-C Championship, was when Wartburg did so back in 2009…Wartburg looks to claim its first title since 2017…Wartburg has captured a league-leading 10 tournament titles, as well as made its 19th championship game appearance.
