St. Cloud, MN-
The Century College Wood Ducks and St. Cloud Technical & Community College Cyclones went the distance, and then some, on Monday, May 20 to decide the NJCAA Region XIII Baseball title. With the completion of the tournament, the2019 Region XIII Division III Baseball All-Region team has been announced.
Both programs were ranked in the NJCAA Division III Top Ten at several points during the regular season, and Century and SCTCC entered the Region post-season as the top two seeds. Each team advanced to the championship round over the course of three days; the Wood Ducks swept three opponents, Itasca, Riverland and M State-Fergus Falls. St. Cloud Technical & Community College had to rebound from an opening-game loss to Rochester Community & Technical College, but recovered to post wins over four successive teams in a 24-hour period to reach the final stage.
Mother Nature intervened on Saturday, May 18, postponing the final contests until Monday, May 21. The Cyclones needed two wins in the championship round for the opportunity to advance to the 2019 NJCAA Division III Baseball World Series; SCTCC delivered in game one, edging Century 6-4. Game two went 12 innings with the teams knotted at 3 apiece - fitting for two programs so closely matched throughout the year - but the final result did not go the way of the Cyclones. A wild pitch with a Wood Duck on third proved to be the difference, and Century College won the game - and Region XIII hardware - by a 4-3 scoreline.
Several individual players from both MCAC and independent Division III teams were placed on the All-Region team. The NJCAA Region XIII leadership has announced the 2019 squad, which can be found at this link.
The Minnesota College Athletic Conference placed 14 athletes on the 18-man roster, led by Region XIII MVP Will Funk, of St. Cloud Technical & Community College. Funk was joined by Cyclone teammate, Luis Massa in All-Region honors.
Hibbing Community College, the Northern Division champion, led the MCAC with three athletes named All-Region- Evan Jerome, Ray Santacruz and Brandon Borg. Minnesota State-Fergus Falls and Riverland both placed two ballplayers on the squad; Spartans Jake Dykhoff and Matt Pietsch joined RCC Blue Devils Yadiel Ortiz and Javier Ramos. Vermilion's Lukas Adleman was the lone Ironman on the team, joined by Jeremiah Van De Steeg (Rochester CTC), Alan Pietila (Central Lakes College), John Baker (Itasca Community College) and Jake Hansen (Anoka-Ramsey Community College). Independent program Century contributed four players to the team; Erik Swenson, Alex Everson, Brendan Knoll and Cole LaLonde.
For the complete, 2019 NJCAA Region XIII Division III Baseball All-Region Team, please click here.
For more on the 2019 NJCAA Division III Baseball World Series, go to: http://www.njcaa.org/sports/bsb/2018-19/div3/national_championship/index
About the Minnesota College Athletic Conference
The Minnesota College Athletic Conference is the organizational body for NJCAA-affiliated two-year technical and community college athletic programs in the Minnesota State system. The mission of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference is to advance intercollegiate athletics by providing an engaging and supportive environment for success of our student athletes and competition among member institutions. The MCAC is committed to the guiding principles of encouraging the development and success of student athletes, promoting the integrity, honesty and loyalty to member schools as well as upholding the sustainability of conference athletic programs.