Luther beat Coe Sunday afternoon at Clark Field for the second time in two days to claim the Iowa Conference softball tournament championship.

But while Saturday’s 2-0 extra inning win was a pitcher’s duel, the Norse out-pounded the Kohawks, 15-11, in a slugfest of a tourney finale.

The two teams combined for 30 hits with five home runs.

“These are two upper echelon teams,” said Coe Coach Bob Timmons afterward. “This year we’ve had several close games.

“But this one was more like a slow-pitch score.”

Win or lose, both teams were assured of being among the squads that start regional play in the NCAA Division III tournament this week. Pairings are to be announced Monday.

Coe is currently ranked ninth in the nation, while Luther is at No.11.

Luther (30-6) scored in every inning but the last one and broke the game open with a seven-run rally in the fourth.

Kayla Hatting opened the frame with an infield hit and Kelsey Rose followed with a line-drive homer to right.

Following a double to left by Carli Radil, former Xavier and Kirkwood star Kristen Winter drew a walk. Praire grad Katie Wieland then hit another home run to left.

Two more consecutive doubles to left-center came before Coe reliever Arran Weeces could get an out.

“Hitting is contagious,” said Wieland, a junior who recorded her fourth dinger of the year.

Winter hit her sixth home run of the season in the fifth inning, a two-run blast to left that knocked Weeces out and brought back Kohawk starter Maliah Fligg.

“Coe’s such a good team, that we approached every inning like the score was 0-0," said Winter. "It didn’t matter if we were ahead by two runs or six.”

The Kohawks (35-8), winners of the regular season Iowa Conference title, showed plenty of moxie by staying in the game.

They fell behind 3-0 right at the start, but Danielle Schlotterbeck hit a high and long two-run homer to center in the bottom of the first to close the gap.

And trailing 5-2 going into their half of the third, they scored four to take the lead.

Coe chased Luther starter Topanga Skiles with fourth straight hits, including a two-run home run by Nicole Gentile. And they parlayed singles by Taylor Riedl and McCall Meade off hard-throwing lefty reliever Annie Versnik into two more runs.

Even after the Norse brought All-American hurler Becca Girvan to the mound the next inning to protect their 12-6 lead, Coe managed to tag her for five runs over the next four innings.

Twice the Kohawks had the bases loaded with the tying run at the plate.

“I was very proud of our team the way they kept coming back,” said Timmons. “I think they grew up some today.”