A five-run seventh helped lift the fourth-ranked Iowa Central baseball team past North Iowa Area Thursday afternoon, 8-5.

With the win, the Tritons (45-11 overall) advance in the Region XI Tournament to meet No. 10 Southeastern (41-15) back here at Rogers Park Friday at 11 a.m. Southeastern earned a bye into the semifinals.

Will Smoot hit a home run with Michael Siemer driving in three to lead the Iowa Central offense. Cooper Nicholson and Smoot both had two RBI while Zakary Goodwin had two hits and scored twice.

“Any ugly win is better than a pretty loss,” ICCC head coach Eric Stein said. “We had a lot of chances all day and I’m just glad (a big inning) finally happened when it did.

“We didn’t play well at all. I thought we got away from our approach and that got us in some trouble.”

Josh Kirchhoff came on in relief, pitching the final three innings with four strikeouts to improve to 9-1 on the year. He quickly retired all three batters he faced in the ninth to secure the win.

Ian Culver got the start, striking out 11 over six innings of work with five hits and two earned runs allowed.

“Ian gave us a shot to win like he always does and Kirchhoff shutting the door was big,” Stein said. “Hopefully, we got a game like this out of our system now.”

Troy Berg added two runs scored and a stolen base, drawing two of the six walks Iowa Central received.

In the seventh, the Tritons took advantage of an error by the Trojans (23-31), recording four hits to score five runs.

NIACC took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run in the first by Isaac Huettl, as the catcher went 2-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored. John Lyman struck out eight as the Trojans recorded 13 strikeouts as a pitching staff.

Iowa Central went 5-for-15 with runners on base and had four hits with runners in scoring position.

During the regular season, the Tritons won all three games vs. Southeastern, scoring 43 runs during the series.

In the first game of the day, Des Moines Area topped Northeast, 10-2. The Bears meet top-seed and sixth-ranked Kirkwood at 2:30 p.m.