Region XI DI Baseball Tournament Homepage
Centerville, IA—The Marshalltown Community College baseball team's 2014 season came to an end on Saturday, but only for the matter of minutes as a series of events following a 9-7 loss to top-seeded Indian Hills Community College gave new life to the Tigers in the Region XI Tournament.
After dropping the first game of the tournament to Iowa Western Community College 9-8, the Tigers found themselves in a back-and-forth battle with the Falcons in game two, attempting to stave off elimination. Indian Hills scored two late runs to take the apparent victory. However, following the game, it was ruled that the Falcons' final pitcher of the game was not on the 26-man playoff roster, ruling him ineligible for the tournament. The Tigers were credited with a 9-0 forfeit win to advance to the final day of the tournament.
MCC will face undefeated Iowa Western at 11:00 AM tomorrow morning after the Reivers eliminated Indian Hills 8-0 in Saturday's final contest. The Tigers will need to defeat Iowa Western twice tomorrow in the double-elimination tournament to claim their first ever Region XI DI Championship. Both teams automatically qualify for next week's four-team Northern District Tournament, hosted by the Region XI Tournament winner. The district appearance will be the first in program history for the Tigers.
The Tigers opened up tournament play in a hole as Iowa Western jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings of play. MCC stormed back with five runs in the third inning thanks to a two-run double from Ty Russell (Victoria, BC/Lambrick Park). Bennett Mann (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown) tripled to score Eric Kent (Fort Madison, IA/Fort Madison) to cap off the scoring.
The Reivers regained the lead with three runs in the fourth, but the Tigers responded with three in the fifth to tie the game back up as Mann provided another run-scoring triple off the center field wall. Freshman Alex McCune (Johnston, IA/Johnston) relieved starting pitcher Richard England (Centerville, IA/Centerville) and tossed three shutout innings as the two team's remained in a deadlock. The Reivers eventually took the victory with a solo home run in the eighth to put MCC one game away from elimination.
Game two saw MCC and Indian Hills trade leads throughout the first four innings. Kent belted a double to score Daryl Blaskovich (Brentwood Bay, BC/Lambrick Park) in the first for the initial run. Trailing 2-1 heading into the fourth, the Tigers manufactured three runs to take a two-run advantage. The Falcons scored five runs over the next two frames to go back up 7-4.
Kent blasted a triple to left-center to score Russell and cut into the lead in the seventh. In the eighth, Blaskovich drilled a 2-1 pitch over the left field wall for a two run home run and tie the game at seven. The Falcons answered with two runs in the bottom half and held on for the apparent victory, only to have the win taken away, allowing the Tigers to advance.
Blaskovich finished game two 3-5 at the plate with four RBI and two runs scored while Kent also went 3-5 against the Falcons with two extra base hits. Mann finished the afternoon with three extra base hits to spark an MCC offense that entered the tournament having been shutout in their previous two regular season games.
Live stats will be available for tomorrow's games.
