WATERLOO – The NIACC baseball team faces Kirkwood at 1 p.m. Thursday at Riverfront Stadium in the opening round of the Region XI baseball tournament.
NIACC, the fourth seed in the tournament, won 3 out of 4 games against the Eagles during the regular season. Fifth-seeded Kirkwood won the opening game of the 4-game series in Mason City 14-4 in six innings and NIACC won the final three games 8-2, 1-0 and 6-1.
NIACC coach Travis Hergert, whose team is 22-15, said sophomore right-hander Lucas Bakker will start today’s contest against the Eagles. Bakker is 7-1 with a 2.90 earned run average with 48 strikeouts and 16 walks.
The winner of today’s contest faces either top-seeded DMACC or eighth-seeded Southwestern at 4 p.m. Friday in the second round. The NIACC/Kirkwood loser faces the DMACC/Southwestern loser at 10 a.m. Friday.
Thursday’s games (Riverfront Stadium, Waterloo)
10 a.m. – (1) DMACC vs. (8) Southwestern
1 p.m. – (4) NIACC vs. (5) Kirkwood
4 p.m. – (3) Iowa Central vs. (6) Ellsworth
7 p.m. – (2) Southeastern vs. (7) Iowa Lakes
