WATERLOO – Daniel Bradley has a flair for the dramatic.
The sophomore from New Zealand and the NIACC baseball team was down to its last strike. Iowa Central led NIACC 6-5 in the ninth inning and Bradley drilled a solo home run, his second of the contest, to right-center field on a 2-2 pitch with two outs.
NIACC pushed across three runs in its half of the 10th inning to advance to the NJCAA Region XI title game with a 9-6 Sunday afternoon at Riverfront Stadium.
NIACC (44-13) plays Southwestern at noon on Monday in the regional title game. The Trojans must top Southwestern twice to claim their second regional title in three years.
The first title game was pushed to Monday due to storms moving into the Waterloo area Sunday.
Sunday’s win over Iowa Central was the 100th career win for NIACC coach Travis Hergert, who has a career mark of 100-62 in three seasons.
NIACC 9, Iowa Central 6 (10 innings)
NIACC 300 001 101 3 – 9 12 2
Iowa Central 111 201 000 0 – 6 16 2
Ryan Huntington (3K, 1BB), Trent Roose (5) (0K, 0BB), Chad Christensen (6) and Juan De La Cruz. JC Hatcher (0K, 1BB), Abrahan Flete (1) (11K, 3BB), Alex McCune (10) (0K, 2BB), Tyler Vaughn (10) (0K, 0BB) and Kirk McLeod. W – Christensen (4-0); L – McCune (3-3). 2B – Daniel Bradley (N), Troy Bullingham (N) 2, Junior Gomez (IC), Christian Montero (IC), Jason Galeano (IC), Jose Paulino (IC) 2. HR – Bradley 2. Multiple hits – Jonathan Cruz (N) 3, Bradley 3, Bullingham 2, Gomez 3, McLeod 3, Montero 2, Paulino 3. Multiple RBIs – Bradley 3, Zach Fricke (N) 2, Austin LaDoux (N) 2, Gomez 3.
NJCAA REGION XI BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
Thursday’s results
DMACC 7, Kirkwood 4 (11 innings)
Iowa Central 12, Ellsworth 7
NIACC 13, Iowa Lakes 9
Southwestern 9, Southeastern 8
Friday’s results
Ellsworth 6, Kirkwood 5
Southeastern 11, Iowa Lakes 0 (5)
Iowa Central 14, DMACC 7
Southwestern 8, NIACC 4
Saturday’s results
Southeastern 7, DMACC 5
NIACC 15, Ellsworth 9
Southwestern 6, Iowa Central 2
NIACC 5, Southeastern 3
Sunday’s result
NIACC 9, Iowa Central 6 (10 innings)
Monday’s games
Noon – NIACC (44-13) vs. Southwestern (17-33)
3 p.m. – Second championship game, if necessary.
