Box Score Despite enduring two separate weather delays in Thursday's NJCAA DII World Series semifinal matchup with fifth-seeded St. Johns River State, the Heartland baseball team entered David Allen Memorial Ballpark on Friday with poise and confidence. The game between the Hawks and the Vikings began at noon on Thursday, and was delayed nearly an hour in the third inning before play was completely halted in the 10^th frame with the teams knotted at 9-9. A Daniel Mosele walk-off, sacrifice fly nearly eight hours later boosted the Hawks to a 10-9 victory to advance to the NJCAA DII World Series championship.
 
The Hawks began the 10^th inning with no runners on and nobody out, and it took very little time for the home team to wake the bats up, even with an early 10:00 am start time. Corey Boyette led things off with a single through the right side, and advanced to third on a Mark Kattula base knock moments later. Jacyk Uehling was walked intentionally after Kattula swiped second to load the bases for Mosele. From there, Mosele lifted a deep fly ball to straightaway center field, scoring Boyette as the Hawks stayed alive in the National tournament.
 
SJR State ignited the scoring in the second frame, as the Vikings scored three runs on two hits to take a 3-0 lead. Kattula cut into the deficit with a two-run blast in the bottom-half of the frame to make it 3-2. The Hawks scored twice more in the third inning, as Bobby Atkinson drove in a run with an RBI groundout before Boyette scored Sam Antonacci on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-3 in favor of the Hawks. Play was halted for nearly an hour before picking up from that point.
 
A slew of errors by the Hawks in the fifth allowed two SJR State runs to cross. A run-scoring single by Jack Slater allowed the Vikings to tack on one more tally to take a 6-4 advantage. The Hawks would score four times in the bottom-half of the frame, however. Atkinson led the inning off with a hit-by-pitch, followed by a Kattula single. Uehling and Gallien Coupet each reached on errors by the Vikings to score three runs. Antonacci was walked with the bases juiced later in the inning to make it 8-6 in favor of the Hawks.
 
SJR State third baseman Kaleb Freeman would not let his club go down quietly, however, as the switch hitter launched a three-run shot to give the Vikings a 9-8 lead in the sixth. Atkinson would tie the game in the seventh at 9-9 with an RBI double before play was again suspended after the top of the 10^th.
 
Jack Stellano (5-1) received the win for the Hawks in relief, as the lefty tossed three innings and allowed one hit and one walk while registering three strikeouts. Mason Telford also helped limit the SJR State offense, throwing two frames and yielding just one hit.
 
Heartland now advances to the championship game of the NJCAA DII World Series between the winner of Southeastern Iowa Community College and Lansing Community College. The contest is set to take place at 5:00 pm Friday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Okla., weather permitting. Because the Hawks are the only team left standing without a loss, the winner of the Southeastern Iowa and Lansing game must defeat the Hawks twice. Further information can be found here.