WATERLOO, Iowa – Five players recorded an RBI as No. 19 NIACC took a 7-4 win against Iowa Lakes in the first round of the Region XI Tournament.
Freshman second baseman Hunter King (Mason City, IA) had a pair of RBI, while Drew Verstegen (Fr., Mason City, IA), Nick Tillo (So., Sioux City, IA), Nate Olin (So., Galesburg, IL), and Reynaldo Sala (Fr., Santiago, Dominican Republic) all had one RBI.
Eight Trojans combined for 13 hits in the game, three of which came from sophomore first baseman Tyler Peterson (Eden Prairie, MN), who had three singles and a run.
Pitcher Jeremy Cronk (Fr., North Liberty, IA) had five strikeouts in two innings for the save, and Joey Reed (Fr., Lindstrom, MN) earned the win with seven innings of work. Reed allowed all four runs, but kept the Lakers to only six hits.
Iowa Lakes (23-29), who earlier in the day eliminated Kirkwood with a 6-4 win in the play-in game, leapt out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the first.
NIACC (37-19) was able to respond with a three runs with two out in the third. Verstegen had an RBI triple to start the run, and Olin and Tillo both hit RBI singles later that inning.
King tacked on his pair of RBI in the fifth on a double that scored Olin and Peterson, and Sala added the final runs of the game in the eighth with a single. Sala was given only one RBI since Jose Perez, who scored from first, reached base on an error earlier in the inning.
After the first, the Lakers were only able to score two in the top of the seventh. The loss drops the Lakers into the loser’s bracket, where they will play Ellsworth in a win-or-go-home match at noon on Friday. Ellsworth lost 16-6 in five innings to Iowa Central on Thursday as well.
NIACC will play second-seeded Southeastern on Friday at 3:30 p.m. That game will be followed by top-seeded DMACC taking on Iowa Central at 7 p.m. None of those teams can be eliminated on Friday.
