Region XI DI Baseball Tournament Home Page (Final)
Centerville, IA—Despite a 14-4 loss to Iowa Western Community College in the Region XI DI Baseball Tournament Championship on Sunday, the Marshalltown Community College baseball team earned its first-ever bid to the Northern District Tournament. The Tigers finished as runners-up in the Region XI Tournament for the second straight year.
The Tigers advanced to the championship game following Saturday's forfeit victory over Indian Hills Community College to take on the Reivers in the championship game for the third time in the last four seasons. Region XI is this year's host for the upcoming District Tournament. The host region sends two teams to the four-team playoff with a chance to earn a trip to Grand Junction, Colorado for the NJCAA World Series.
Along with MCC and Iowa Western, the Region IV and the Region XXIV tournament winners, both out of Illinois, will take part in next weekend's tournament, hosted by Iowa Western in Council Bluffs, IA.
Sunday's matchup paired the second-seeded Reivers against the third-seeded Tigers for the second straight day. Iowa Western defeated MCC in Saturday's opening round contest 9-8. Key errors early on lead to a 5-0 deficit for the Tigers through two innings of play.
Trailing 8-0 after the three and a half innings of play, the Tiger offense came alive with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Eric Kent (Fort Madison, IA/Fort Madison) lifted a two-run single to deep left-center to score Austin Allen (Milo, IA/Southeast Warren) and Daryl Blaskovich (Brentwood Bay, BC/Lambrick Park). Pedro Lopez (Naples, FL/Palmetto Ridge) delivered a sacrifice fly to score Ty Russell (Victoria, BC/Lambrick Park) for MCC's third run.
The Reivers halted any chance of a comeback, scoring two runs in each of the next three innings. Russell provided an RBI double in the fifth, scoring Blaskovich, for the Tigers' final run of the afternoon. Blaskovich and Russell each finished with two hits in the loss.
The Reivers have now won 10 consecutive Region XI Championships.