NO.18 EAGLES REACH NJCAA WORLD SERIES

The next stop for the Kirkwood baseball team will be the NJCAA Division II World Series.

The 18th-ranked Eagles got a brilliant pitching performance from Tyler Tscherter and socked four home runs to defeat eighth-ranked Miles Community College, 9-1, in the championship game of the Great Plains district tournament at Kirkwood Saturday afternoon.

Kirkwood will take a 42-20 record to the World Series, which will be held in Enid, Okla., from May 29 through June 5. This is Kirkwood's second trip to the tournament in the past four years under Coach Todd Rima.

Tscherter (7-1) pitched a no-hitter for 6 2/3 innings before surrendering a solo homer to Miles star Dawson Perry with the Eagles already holding a 7-0 lead. Tscherter finished with a two-hitter with nine strikeouts in a complete game that lasted nine innings.

Chase Moseley belted two homers for Kirkwood, including a two-run blast in the top of the ninth. Josh Fitzgerald blasted a three-run homer in the second inning to make it 4-0 and Alex Pendergast socked a solo shot in the third to make it 5-0.

Fitzgerald finished 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs. Cade Moss was also 3-for-5. Pendergast and Joel Vaske had two hits.

Miles Community College, located in Montana, finished 44-16.