Maggie Ramold | Sports Co-Editor
The Buena Vista University (BVU) baseball team opened its 2014 season this past weekend traveling to Tulsa, Okla. The Beavers finished up the weekend going 3-1.
The weekend started off with a 2-1 win against 9th ranked St. Thomas. Senior Ryan Titman helped the Beavers get on the board first with an RBI single to help senior Weston Foxx score from second. The Beavers scored again in the fifth inning with an RBI single from sophomore Tanner Truesdell, helping his sophomore teammate Neil Marshall score to take the lead and the eventual win at 2-1. Senior Jon Ringblom was credited with the win, while junior Ian Grigsby picked up his first career save.
“Getting that first win against St. Thomas was huge and a big time morale boost for the season going forward,” senior Nick Schlecht said.
The second game of the day was a comeback win against University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, as the Beavers trailed 5-0 after two inning of play. Junior Brandon Wessels’ grounder in the bottom of the ninth allowed for Titman to score the game-winning run to secure the 8-7 win. The team tallied 12 singles throughout the game as Schlecht added two RBIs and Titman had two hits. Junior Lucas Hadaway was credited with the win.
“We showed that we’re a talented, resilient group and are never out of a game with our ability to overcome early deficits and win close games,” Marshall said.
The Beavers were back at it on Saturday for two games to finish the weekend. After beating ninth ranked St. Thomas on Friday, BVU fell 12-6 to them in their second match-up. Schlecht had a two-run triple, while Foxx and Marshall each contributed two hits for the Beavers. Sophomore Kendall Hazel suffered the loss.
BVU ended the four-game weekend with a win against St. Scholastica 3-2. Grigsby came up big for the Beavers once again and was credited with the save, while Junior Lucas Hadaway snagged the win. Hadaway is now 2-0 on the season.
“We’re happy with how the weekend went and will look to build of it in the upcoming week of practice,” Marshall said.
After a successful weekend against some great teams, both Schlecht and Marshall are excited to see where the season takes them.
“In order to even have a chance at winning our conference this year, we are going to have to go 3-1 every weekend, so this was a good experience for us to go through in competing all weekend long and scratching out ways to win,” Schlecht said.
The goal for the team is to make it back to the College World Series as they did in 2011.
“This is a special group, and we need to prove it. These seniors were freshman back when we made the run to the World Series, and this group of guys wouldn’t want anything more than to return to that stage and see what we can do,” Schlecht said.
Marshall and Ringblom were also honored by the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) for their performances this weekend. Marshall was Position Player Performer of the Week, while Ringblom was named the league’s Pitcher of the Week.
The team will be off until a weekend series on March 15-16 when they travel to Nebraska Wesleyan with opening pitch at 1:00 p.m.
Photo courtesy BVU Athletics
