Coe College is the only Iowa Conference team to gain a berth in the NCAA Division III baseball tournament field. Coe will play at a seven-team first-round site at Stevens Point, Wisconsin later this week.The Kohawks were declared the winners of the Iowa Conference Tournament in Cedar Rapids which could not be completed due to rain. At the time the tournament was halted Coe was the only remaining unbeaten team.
Coe coach Steve Cook who feels they deserve the automatic berth as they were the only team to win all there games. Cook says there’s always the possibility of weather interrupting the tournament, so he says you have to plan for that.
Coe is advancing to the division three tournament for the third time. Cook says it’s a group that had high expectations and feels good about fulfilling those expectations. None of the three teams that tied for the regular season championship earned an at-large bid. That includes a Wartburg team that made it to the final four of the national tournament in 2005.
Wartburg coach Joel Holst who says he was a little surprised that the league did not get another team in the field, but says Coe played the best in the tournament and should be in. Holst says he feels bad especially for Simpson, which lost to Coe in 11 innings as the top seed.
Holst is not against a conference tournament but he would like to see some changes made that would help avoid what happened over the weekend. He says there are a lot of positive things about it, but he says they need to look at it so this doesn’t happen again. Coe opens the regional tournament against St.Thomas of Minnesota.