MASON CITY, Iowa – NIACC baseball may have lost game one of Sunday’s doubleheader against No. 17 Iowa Central, 7-5, but ended the weekend series with a bang in the form of a 3-2 win via walk-off homerun by Nate Pilacinski (So., Gaylord, MN).
Pilacinski took Quinn Johnson’s pitch over the right field wall with two outs in the eighth inning for the win, and to give NIACC (18-3, 3-1 in the ICCAC) three wins during the four game weekend series.
Ean McNeal (Fr., Cedar Rapids, IA) was credited with the win after stepping in for Tim Black (Fr., Mount Hope, Ontario) in the seventh. Black had six strikeouts and allowed two runs in 6.1 innings of work. Both pitchers were aided with great defensive play in the late innings by outfielder Drew Verstegan (Fr., Mason City, IA) and Pilacinski at third base.
Iowa Central pitcher Kole Klocko held the Trojans at bay in his five innings of play during game two. He had five strikeouts, while Johnson had one strikeout in three innings.
NIACC never trailed and led late in game two. Pilacinski had an RBI single in the sixth to give the Trojans a 2-1 lead, but Iowa Central scraped together enough to score one in the seventh to take the game into extra innings.
The Trojans had their 15 game winning streak snapped in game and trailed by five during the fourth inning of that game. Iowa Central took advantage of four NIACC errors and limited NIACC batters to one hit until the seventh inning.
The Trojans fought back with three runs in the seventh, and got the tying run at the plate before giving up the final out.
NIACC will next host Dakota County Technical College in a non-conference doubleheader on Thursday. Game one starts at 2 p.m.
