Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Iowa Central's Cooper Nicholson makes a play at Rogers Park during the regular season.

The fifth-ranked Iowa Central baseball team will get the opportunity to compete for a regional title on familiar turf this week.

The Tritons will serve as hosts for the Region XI Tournament, which begins Thursday at Rogers Park.

In the first game of the day, Northeast meets Des Moines Area at noon. Iowa Central will follow, taking on North Iowa Area at 3:30 p.m.

Kirkwood earned the top-seed as the regular season Div. II champions with Southeastern coming in as the No. 2 seed.

Following a 44-11 season, the Tritons are the three-seed with Northeast, DMACC and NIACC rounding out the qualifiers.

With a win, Iowa Central would advance to face Southeastern at noon on Friday. The event is double-elimination with the championship games scheduled for Sunday.

The Tritons went 2-1 against NIACC during a three-game set at Rogers Park in April. They have won four in a row and eight of nine.

Harrison Bowman, Troy Berg and Jack Mausser are all regulars hitting over .400 on the year. Cooper Nicholson leads the way with 19 homers as Iowa Central has hit 128 longballs as a team.

Bowman has 89 RBI, Will Smoot has driven in 70 and Nicholson 63.

Former Fort Dodge Senior High standout Jace Ulrich has played in 18 games, hitting three homers with nine RBI while batting .353.

Ian Culver leads the pitching staff with a 9-1 record, as both Ryan Ohm and Josh Kirchhoff are 8-1. Kirchhoff has 91 strikeouts, Culber 85 and Ohm 64. The trio have thrown six complete games.

Awaiting the regional winner will be the district final against the winner of Region 13. That best-of-three series will be played May 17-18.

The national tournament is May 25-May 31/June 1 in Enid, Okla.