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Iowa Central begins regional action

WATERLOO — The Iowa Central baseball team enters Region XI Tournament play as one of the hottest teams in the country.

Fresh off a sweep over Iowa Lakes that helped the Tritons earn a share of the ICCAC Div. II title, Justin Meyer and his crew begin the march to Enid, Okla. and the NJCAA World Series by facing Kirkwood here on Friday night at 7 p.m. inside Riverfront Stadium.

Iowa Central (33-16 overall) won 19 of its final 25 games down the stretch to finish tied with NIACC (38-17) at 16-8 in league play. The Tritons, who are riding a seven-game win streak, are the No. 1 seed for the tourney.

A pair of talented arms lead Iowa Central in Anderson DeLeon and Max Steffens.

DeLeon is 8-2 with five complete games and 82 strikeouts in 67 innings. Steffens, who has the fifth-best earned run average in NJCAA Div. II at 1.57, is 7-1 with six complete games and 42 strikeouts.

Steven Calderon, Junior Aracena and Kyle Snuttjer are all batting over .300 for Iowa Central, with Aracena leading the team with 48 RBI and Calderon second with 40.

Both Calderon and Aracena have 10 home runs each, while Felix Martinez has a team-best 39 runs. Former Fort Dodge Senior High standout Austin Halligan has 22 hits, 30 runs and a team-high .485 on-base percentage.

Kirkwood (34-18) earned a victory over DMACC in the opening round Thursday, 10-5. The Eagles have stolen over 145 bases on the year, led by Korry Howell. Colin Kreiter leads the team in RBI and Tyler Bordner in home runs.

Iowa Central and Kirkwood split four meetings this season, with the Tritons winning 4-2 and 3-2, while the Eagles claimed 14-0 and 10-6 triumphs.

A livestream of all the tournament action can be found through ICCAC.org.

The Region XI winner will compete in the North Plains district championship on May 20-21 with the Region 9 and Region 13 winners.

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