Courtney Van Haaften | Sports Co-Editor
The Buena Vista University (BVU) baseball team has won 12 out of their last 15 games, including a 3-1 series win over the Loras Duhawks this week to land a number three seed in the conference tournament.
The Beavers travelled to Dubuque on May 5 and 6 to play a four-game series against Loras College. The series started on Sunday with the Beavers winning both games with scores of 1-0 and 4-2, respectively.
In game one, junior Jon Ringblom got the win for the Beavers. He struck out four batters while only allowing one hit and no runs in four innings pitched. The Beavers’ lone run came from a wild pitch in the third inning.
In game two, the Beavers trailed 1-0 until the sixth inning when junior Nick Schlect doubled then scored after a groundout by sophomore Brandon Wessels and then a bunt single by junior Jesse Munsterman. The Duhawks gained the lead back in the bottom of the seventh, scoring one run, before the Beavers scored two runs in the top of the ninth to secure the win. Munsterman and freshman Tanner Truesdell each finished with two hits for the team while freshman Kendall Hazel got the win on the mound.
BVU split with Loras on Monday, losing game one and coming back to win the second with scores of 1-3 and 8-4.
“The difference between the games on Monday were a couple of hits that didn’t fall our way. We were hitting the ball hard all game the first game, but couldn’t find the gaps. The second game we ended up going into extra innings, and we had a couple of big hits by [senior] Alex Davis and [junior] Weston Foxx that gave us the lead,” junior first baseman Joe Paletta said.
The Beavers now head to Cedar Rapids on Thursday, May 9, to play Loras again in the conference tournament. Baseball Head Coach Steve Eddie says that the team is confident going into the tournament.
“I like the way we have battled back towards the end of the season. We finally made teams earn their runs, and when you start cutting down your defensive mistakes, you are going to have a chance to win,” Eddie said.
The team has been extremely successful, especially towards the end of the season, finishing in third place in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) after winning 12 out of their last 15 games.
“I’m pretty excited. The start of the season was a little rough; we had some ups and downs. We didn’t have everything working as one. Now we are on a roll with pitching and hitting. Everyone has come along, and I think we have a really good shot at the tournament,” Paletta said.
“Throughout the season, we limited the number of mistakes we made. The Iowa Conference is very balanced and the difference in most of the games are mistakes made by the defense, walks, or hit batters. We drastically improved in those two areas,” Eddie said.
The Beavers are looking to keep playing well. They made it to the conference tournament championship game last season and are looking to get back to that same position.
“We just want to look at it one game at a time. If we can get past Loras on Thursday, we’ll play Coe; that will be a big game. We’ve been successful against both of those teams so I think we all like our chances,” Paletta said.
The Beavers start their tournament run at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 9 in Cedar Rapids at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Graphic by Keyla Sosa
