The Coe College baseball team claimed its first Iowa Conference title in school history this season and has broken the club record for victories heading into the league tournament Thursday.

Kevin Schuver and Ryan Velvick, two former Metro high school stars, have been a big part of the team's success.

Schuver, a catcher from Marion High School, is hitting .333 with three homers and 34 RBIs and leads the Iowa Conference in picking runners off base.

Velvick, a third baseman from Prairie High School, is batting .328 with one homer and 17 RBIs.

The Kohawks (29-10) are the No.1 seed for the Iowa Conference tournament and will face Luther or Simpson at 7 p.m. Thursday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Coe finished 18-6 in the league standings, a full two games ahead of Buena Vista and Wartburg, giving the Kohawks their first regular-season title since joining the Iowa Conference 14 years ago.

"It feels great," Schuver said. "To be the first ones to do that, it's a special thing.

"It's kind of like Marion when I was there, the first time we made it to state. It's the same feeling. It's great to be part of something that nobody can take away from us."

Schuver helped Marion High School made its first trip to the state baseball tournament in 2006 on a team that also featured Patrick Lala, now pitching for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and Matt Holland, currently a .385 hitter at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Kohawks have won the regular-season title, but they'll have to win the Iowa Conference tournament to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs. They could make the NCAA playoffs as an at-large selection, but they don't want to leave anything to chance.

"We have to go out there and win," Schuver remarked.

The previous school record for victories in a season was 27, and the team's success this season has surprised some people. "We were actually picked to finish fourth in the conference, so it's really nice to come out on top," Velvick said.

Despite graduating 12 seniors from last year's team, the Kohawks swept their three-game series with Buena Vista and Wartburg, two traditional league powers.

Coe leads the Iowa Conference in hitting at .320 and boasts the third-best team ERA at 3.60, which is a good combination. Schuver has picked eight runners off base, leading the league in a category that's normally dominated by pitchers.

"I just try to snap them off when I can, when they're looking lazy over there," he said. "It's been a lot of fun doing that. It's gotten us out of some big spots this year."

Schuver battled a sore arm last season, but he's pain-free this year and firing the ball. "It really made it painful to throw last year," he said. "It feels great again this year."

The Kohawks have hit 19 homers, led by sophomore outfielder Nick Stein with seven, but Velvick said the team has been winning with "small ball" and good pitching. "We've been hitting the ball really well with these new bats," he said.

The NCAA adopted new bat rules this season, making it harder to hit homers, but the new rules haven't hurt the Kohawks at all. In fact, they seem to have helped.

The Iowa Conference tournament will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Luther and Simpson play at Daniels Park at 1 p.m. Thursday, but all the other games are scheduled for the minor league ballpark.

The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., with a second championship game set for Saturday at 4 p.m. (if needed) in the double-elimination event.

The Kohawks drew an opening-round bye with their No.1 seed in the six-team field, which means they might be able to save some pitching and gain an advantage on Saturday. The No.1 seed is no guarantee of success, however, and the Kohawks know they have work to do.

"Yeah," Velvick said, "a lot of work."