2014 NJCAA Northern District Tournament Homepage
Council Bluffs, IA—Playing in its first-ever NJCAA Northern District Tournament, the Marshalltown Community College baseball team dropped its opening round game to South Suburban College on Friday afternoon, falling 12-4 in eight innings. Austin Allen (Milo, IA/Southeast Warren) and Eric Kent (Fort Madison, IA/Fort Madison) each recorded two-hit games in the loss for the Tigers.
The Tigers' first appearance in the district tournament saw Allen and Daryl Blaskovich (Brentwood Bay, BC/Lambrick Park) get on base to lead off the game, but the offense remained stagnant for much of the afternoon. The Bulldogs plated five runs in the bottom of the first inning off of MCC starting pitcher John Bloom (Laurel, IA/East Marshall) to pull away early.
MCC recorded just one base runner over the next two innings but the offense came alive in the fourth to spark a rally. Trailing 9-0, MCC strung together five consecutive hits, including a two-run double from Blaskovich to score Drayson Lum (Victoria, BC/Lambrick Park) and Allen for the Tigers' first runs of the game. Kent and Bennett Mann (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown) each collected RBI-singles in the inning as well.
That was all the scoring the Tigers could produce as South Suburban's starting pitcher Ben Santori went all eight innings, striking out eight batters. As a team, the Tigers managed nine hits, but stranded nine runners on the day.
The Tigers will look to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament with a 9:00 AM game on Saturday morning against the loser of Iowa Western Community College and Wabash Valley College, playing Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM.