NIACC falls to Iowa Central, 7-5
WEST BURLINGTON - The fifth-seeded NIACC baseball team dropped a 7-5 decision to top-seed Iowa Central in the second round of the NJCAA Region 11 tournament Friday at Community Field, the home of the Burlington Bees.
NIACC (24-28) now plays Northeast CC (38-19) in an elimination game at 5:55 p.m. Friday. The winner of that game faces Kirkwood at 11 a.m. Saturday in another elimination game.
Kirkwood (37-17) dropped a 7-4 decision to second-seed Southeastern in the first game of the day Friday.
Against Iowa Central (45-9), NIACC outhit the Tritons 11-5,but the Trojans stranded 11 runners on base.
Iowa Central led 3-2 after seven innings and the Tritons scored four runs in its half of the eighth inning on a grand slam by Josh Hatano.
NIACC plated three runs in the ninth inning and had runners on first and third with two outs but could not cut into the deficit any further.
NIACC's Will Couchman collected three hits and Brayden Hellum and Alex Berreth both had two hits.
NIACC's Bennett McCollow hit a solo home run in the seventh inning for his 28th career home run, which ranks fourth on the school's career home run list. It was McCollow's 15th home run of the season, which is tied for seventh on the school's all-time single-season list.
Austin Klug (2-3) took the loss for the Trojans. He allowed three runs off of two hits and five walks in five innings of work.
Iowa Central faces second-seed Southeastern (42-15) at 2 p.m. Saturday in the winner's bracket final.
NJCAA REGION 11 TOURNAMENT
THURSDAY'S RESULTS
NIACC 5, Northeast CC 4
Kirkwood 8, DMACC 7 (12)
Northeast CC 8, DMACC 7
FRIDAY'S GAMES
Southeastern 7, Kirkwood 4
Iowa Central 7, NIACC 5
6 p.m. (Game 6) - Northeast CC vs. NIACC
SATURDAY'S GAMES
11 a.m (Game 7) - Game 6 winner vs. Kirkwood
2 p.m. (Game 8) - Southeastern vs. Iowa Central
5 p.m. (Game 9) - Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 loser
SUNDAY'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1 p.m. (Game 10) - Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner
4 p.m. (Game 11) - If necessary second championship game
