Friday May 10th Local Sports

CLINTON – The NIACC baseball team dropped a 2-1 decision to Southeastern in the opening round of the NJCAA Region XI tournament on Thursday in Clinton.

Southeastern’s Nick Boone scored from third when Gavin Logan coaxed a walk out of NIACC reliever Michael Sturek for the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Sturek relieved NIACC starter Michael Oh with the bases loaded and nobody out in the Southeastern ninth inning.

Oh (5-3) scattered seven hits, allowed two earned runs while striking out eight and walking three.

NIACC took a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Gabe Eckstaine, who plated Will Sturek.

Southeastern tied the game in the eighth inning on a double to right field by Bryce Simon.

Kyle Amendt gained the win in relief for Southeastern. Amendt allowed one hit and no runs in 1 1/3 innings work with three strikeouts and no walks.

NIACC faces Ellsworth game at 6 p.m. Friday in an elimination game. Iowa Central topped Ellsworth 9-0 in seven innings in the final first round game Thursday.

= Thursday’s results
Kirkwood 5, Northeast Community College 3
Southeastern 2, NIACC 1
Iowa Central 9, Ellsworth 0 (7)

= Friday’s games
Noon – DMACC vs. Kirkwood
3 p.m. – Southeastern vs. Iowa Central
6 p.m. – NIACC vs. Ellsworth (elimination game)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Region XI-B softball tournament starts this afternoon for NIACC at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. The Lady Trojans are the third seed in the region and will face sixth seed Iowa Lakes at 4 o’clock. NIACC won all four regular season games against Iowa Lakes this season, winning 9-5 and 15-9 on March 31st in Estherville, and 13-3 and 9-1 on April 14th in Mason City. On the other side of the XI-B bracket, second seed Kirkwood faces seventh seed Ellsworth. The double-elimination tournament continues through the weekend, with the winner traveling to face the Region 13 winner Dawson Community College of Glendive Montana next weekend. Region XI-A has their tournament this weekend at DMACC in Boone. Top-seed DMACC will face eighth-seed Northeast Community College and fourth-seed Iowa Central faces fifth-seed Southwestern in the opening round this afternoon.

IOWA CITY — The 24th-ranked Iowa Hawkeye baseball team closes out the home season beginning Friday night by opening a three game series against Michigan State. The Hawkeyes are 11-7 in conference play and take on a Spartan team that opened the season 3-18 but has won four of its last seven in the Big Ten.

That’s Iowa coach Rick Heller. The Hawkeyes are 18-5 at home and looking to finish strong at Banks Field.

Iowa has won six straight weekend series but in four of the last five the Hawkeyes have failed to complete a sweep by dropping the Sunday game.

Game one of the three game series is tonight, with afternoon games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

MASON CITY — Co-ed state-qualifier track & field meets will take place today after meets all across the state were postponed Thursday due to the cold and windy weather:

== 4A at Fort Dodge — Mason City, Ames, Ankeny, Ankeny Centennial, Des Moines Lincoln, Des Moines Roosevelt, Fort Dodge, Urbandale

== 3A at Charles City — Clear Lake, Charles City, Algona, Decorah, Hampton-Dumont/CAL, Iowa Falls-Alden, Waverly-Shell Rock, Webster City

== 2A at Garner — Aplington-Parkersburg, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Crestwood, Denver, Eagle Grove, Emmetsburg, Forest City, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura, Lake Mills, Osage, Pocahontas

== 1A at Northwood — Newman, AGWSR, Belmond-Klemme, Central Springs, Clarksville, Janesville, Nashua-Plainfield, North Butler, North Iowa, Northwood-Kensett, Riceville, Rockford, St. Ansgar, West Fork

== 1A at North Union — (local team listed only) West Hancock

Qualifiers from today’s meets will compete at the state track meet which gets underway next Thursday in Des Moines.

MASON CITY — Boys sectional golf meets take place today in Classes 1A, 2A and 3A

== 3A, Cedar Ridge at Charles City — Charles City, Clear Lake, Decorah, Independence, Oelwein, Waukon, Waverly-Shell Rock, West Delaware

== 2A, New Hampton Golf & Country Club — Crestwood, Forest City, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura, Lake Mills, New Hampton, North Fayette Valley, Osage, Sumner-Fredericksburg

== 1A, Newell Municipal Golf Course — Belmond-Klemme, Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire, Newell-Fonda, North Iowa, North Union, St. Edmond, West Bend-Mallard

== 1A, Nashua Town & Country Club — Bishop Garrigan, Central Springs, Nashua-Plainfield, Newman, North Butler, Rockford, West Fork, West Hancock

== 1A, Silver Springs Golf Course, Ossian — MFL MarMac, Northwood-Kensett, Postville, Riceville, St. Ansgar, South Winneshiek, Turkey Valley