WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa – NIACC baseball has kept its ICCAC conference regular season title hopes alive by winning Sunday’s games against Southeastern, 9-7 and 5-2.
Nick Tillo (So., Sioux City, IA) had five RBI on four hits in the doubleheader to lead the 14th-ranked Trojans (34-11, 14-6 in the ICCAC).
NIACC scored three runs in the third and fourth innings, and held off the Blackhawks’ five-run sixth in game one. Tillo had three hits with three RBI, and Tanner Unkel (Fr., Cedar Rapids, IA) added three more hits.
Lucas Bakker (Fr., Brisbane, Australia) was credited with the win in game one, and Tim Black (Fr., Mount Hope, Ontario) gave up five hits and two runs to earn the game two victory.
NIACC jumped out quickly with four runs in the first inning of the nightcap and never looked back. Hunter King (Fr., Mason City, IA) had three hits in that game. NIACC also had doubles from King, Tillo, Drew Verstegen (Fr., Mason City, IA), Tyler Peterson (So., Eden Prairie, MN), and Reynaldo Sala (Fr., Santiago, Dominican Republic) in the second game.
The series split with Southeastern (27-20, 11-9) keeps NIACC three games ahead of the Blackhawks in the conference standings. NIACC needs one win against No. 9 DMACC (35-11, 15-1) to clinch a first round bye in the Region XI Tournament starting on May 10. NIACC also has an outside shot to win the conference regular season title if they sweep DMACC next weekend.
NIACC will travel to Century College at White Bear Lake, Minnesota for a non-conference doubleheader on Thursday starting at 2 p.m.
