MASON CITY – The NIACC baseball team opens its home season Saturday and Sunday at Roosevelt Stadium.
The ICCAC doubleheaders start both days at 2 p.m.
NIACC enters the 4-game series 11-3 overall and 3-1 in the ICCAC. Kirkwood is 16-2 overall and 4-0 in the league.
“This week again comes down to how we execute on the mound and on defense,” first-year NIACC coach Travis Hergert said. “We must put together productive at-bats.
“There were some stretches last weekend where we wasted some at-bats in situations where we could have extended a lead. Those will come back to haunt.”
NIACC is coming off a 3-1 series win over Southwestern last weekend. The Trojans outscored the Spartans 36-8 in the 4-game series.
Sophomore Joey Reed (Lindstrom, Minn.) and sophomore Lucas Bakker (Deception Bay, Australia) both improved to 3-0 with wins last weekend and freshman Nick Veale (Langwarrin, Australia) improved to 2-0.
Sophomore Ryan Voves (Mason City, Ia.) was 7 for 14 last weekend to lead the Trojans’ offense.
“It’s always nice to win a series,” Hergert said. “We do know we let a nice opportunity to sweep get away from us.
“But a good trait with this group is that they attack our weaknesses and continue to make adjustments. We corrected some of those mistakes on Sunday and we got the results we were looking for.”
Reed and sophomore Tim Black (Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada) are slated to pitch the two games on Saturday. Bakker and Veale are the scheduled starters on Sunday.
Kirkwood, which is coached by former NIACC coach Todd Rima, swept Marshalltown on April 2. The Eagles opened their ICCACwith a 4-game sweep of Iowa Lakes last weekend.
For Kirkwood, Eric Schenck-Joblinske is hitting .435 (3rd in the ICCAC). Wilfredo Feliz is hitting .400 (7th in ICCAC).
On the mound for the Eagles, Collin Belk is 4-0 with a 0.39 earned run average with seven strikeouts and seven walks in 23 innings pitched.
NIACC Notes
Top 10 list: NIACC has four batters in the top 10 in the ICCAC in batting average. Tanner Unkel is hitting .442 (2nd in ICCAC), Max Waletich is hitting .435 (tied for third in ICCAC), Voves is hitting .432 (5th in ICCAC) and Jake Adams is hitting .400 (tied for 7th in ICCAC).
Hot start: Freshman Alex Stuart was 5 for 8 in the 4-game series at Southwestern in his first games of the season. He was 4 for 4 with 3 RBIs in the final game of the series (a 16-1 NIACC victory).
History lesson: Bakker is tied for second on NIACC’s all-time win list with 10 wins. He’s tied with Kyle Hildman (2002-03) and Taylor Nawrocki (2010-11). The school’s all-time win leader is Tom Heithoff (2006-07) with 11. Bakker also ranks fifth on the school’s all-time strikeout list with 72.
