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Historic day for Tritons

MINNEAPOLIS — The Iowa Central baseball team made history here Friday morning.

The Tritons picked up a 1-0 victory vs. Century College in the first-ever baseball game played inside the billion-dollar U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Century scored a 3-0 win in eight innings.

Iowa Central (1-1 overall) and Century played the first game at 6 a.m. Originally, other games were scheduled for earlier in the week, but stadium officials decided that change-over from hosting the AMA Supercross series this past weekend was too close for those to take place.

Instead, it was the Tritons making history under first-year head coach Justin Meyer.

“It was a great setup,” Meyer said. “It was really something to see and a lot of fun. Pictures from far away really distorted it because once you got down on the field, it looked like a baseball park.

“Getting in (for the first game), it was a rat race to get things going, but overall it was just a really neat experience.”

Meyer added that several of the games planned for after the two Iowa Central ones were called off after teams did not make it due to the weather. The Tritons left late Thursday night, beating the storm that hit much of Iowa.

“There’s not a single snow flake up here,” Meyer said. “But we had parents call us who left right after the game and they told us the roads were one lane and slow driving, so we are staying up here another night and trying to get back (Saturday).”

Former Fort Dodge Senior High standout Austin Halligan had the lone RBI in the opener, plating what would eventually be the game-winning run in the fifth. Halligan, Junior Aracena and Jared Renken all had hits, with Renken scoring the only run.

Austin Suhr pitched the first three innings, allowing no hits, walking two and striking out four. He was relieved in the fourth by Rafael Melo, who earned the win and had one strikeout and allowed no hits over two innings of work.

Bryce Kearns pitched the final two innings, striking out three to earn the save.

“I was very pleased with out pitching staff,” Meyer said. “Austin gave us a great start, Rafael Melo, a freshman, came in with the game tied and went six-up, six-down. We hand the ball over to Kearns, our all-region closer, and he finished it off.”

Felix Martinez, Franyelyn Diaz, Tim Neff and Renken had hits in the second contest, but Iowa Central was unable to put a run on the board. After going seven scoreless against one another, Century played three runs in the top of the eighth.

Anderson DeLeon pitched the final four innings, recording eight strikeouts but allowing five hits and three runs. Evan Johnson pitched a scoreless inning and recorded two strikeouts in relief of freshman starter Maxwell Steffens, who had three scoreless frames with a pair of strikeouts.

“In the second, we had it setup just like the first,” Meyer said. “Steffens gave us a great start, Johnson came in and struck out two and we had our go-to-guy in Anderson DeLeon on the mound.

“We felt like we were in really good shape, but (DeLeon) got the ball up and they hit him hard for four hits in the eighth and that was all she wrote.”

While Meyer was excited by the overall performance from his pitching staff, the offense left him wanting more moving forward.

“I felt like guys were trying to do too much,” he said. “Instead of just battling and creating a team-type atmosphere at the plate, they were pushing too hard. It was a good learning experience and something we can continue to work on to get better.”

The Tritons are now off until March 2 when they head to Millington, Tenn. to play Rend Lake, SE Nebraska, Lincoln Trail, SW Illinois and Parkland over three days. The first home game is scheduled for April 6 at Ed Barbour Field vs. Rochester.

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