WAVERLY - "Turn out the lights," Don Meredith might've sang. "The party's over."

That was the background music that, in essence, played Coe and Luther off the field last Saturday at the Iowa Conference baseball tournament in Cedar Rapids.

Meanwhile, Wartburg, after winning an unthinkable three games Saturday, partied heartily - first at a Happy Joe's Pizza Parlor, then on the team bus.

"Lights-out baseball," Knights coach Joel Holst called it. "I don't think I've ever seen a team play as well as they did in all three phases of the game.

"We hope to continue that."

The fifth-seeded Knights (27-18) planned to repeat their inspired performance today at 3:30 p.m. versus No. 2 seed Millsaps College in an opening-round NCAA Division III regional game in Moline, Ill. The 32-8 Millsaps Majors, of Jackson, Miss., were briefly ranked No. 1 nationally in mid-April and are led by sluggers Will Hawkins and Hunter Owen, who have combined for 24 home runs this season.

After knocking off Coe and its bitter rival, Luther twice last Saturday, Wartburg has finally begun to gather steam. Such fortunes seemed unlikely late in the regular season as the Knights closed out conference play by losing six of their last nine contests, including three at the hands of the Kohawks.

According to their head coach, the Knights' 13 seniors are just now figuring out how to handle the stress of their final collegiate campaign.

"To be very honest," said Holst, "this season has been such a roller-coaster ride.

"I think being in the regional last year and having so many guys return is a great thing - but there's pressure with that, too. And I think seniors typically feel more pressure than younger guys.

"Combined with a lot of things, the regular season … was such an inconsistent deal."

Of course, the Knights, who had won 12 straight regular-season IIAC titles before this spring, have had a few constants they can always rely upon in 2009.

One such senior is Aruban import Jerrold Martijn, a 5-foot-6 scrapper who threw two complete games in less than 72 hours last weekend.

"I think about that (having a pitcher throw that much) and I kinda cringe," Holst admitted Tuesday. But "Jerrold was in the zone."

"I just stepped up," said Martijn, smiling. "On Sunday my arm felt really bad - I wanted to cut it off."

The recent efforts of Martijn, a 10-1 hurler who relies on great location, won't soon be forgotten around Waverly.

But you don't pull off the unthinkable without a few unsung heroes. Mike Johnson, for example, has overcome an elbow ailment, and he ignited the Knights' offense at the perfect time last weekend.

Johnson, a senior first baseman and pre-med student, surgically picked apart Luther's pitching late Saturday night, going 4-for-4 in Wartburg's 12-7 tournament-clinching win.

"It's 100 percent mental for me," Johnson noted. "It's an approach. It's being happy to be out there every day. And looking for my pitch has been key - every time I've been pitched a fastball this year it seems like I've hit it."

"He has been the glue, basically, to our whole season," Holst said of Johnson, a West Des Moines native.

Now, Johnson and the rest of Holst's largest senior class ever plan to turn the lights out for more opponent in NCAA regional play.

"Hey," said Holst, "these guys have nothing to lose, right?"

His 13 seniors, the coach noted, "have sacrificed a lot for our baseball program - a lot of sweat, a lot of tears. To have the reward of going to another regional, the guys are excited."