Gibson Berns | Staff Writer
The Beaver baseball team opened up their season with a trip to Arizona and they came back with five victories. They swept Cornell College on Sunday and Bethany Lutheran (Minn.) on Monday. They finished off their trip with a tight victory over Carroll (Wis.) on Tuesday.
“It was good to get outside and play again,” junior catcher Brandon Wessels said.
On Sunday the Beavers took on fellow Iowa college, Cornell, and won both games by a combined 14-3 score. The first game was the bigger victory of the two, as the Beavers won 11-3. Both Brandon and Bryce Wessels led the team with four hits each, while Brandon and Eric Gurbacki led the Beavers with three RBIs each. Kendall Hazel pitched six innings for the Beavers, striking out five and giving up seven hits and getting the win.
The second game was a bit closer, with the Beavers winning 3-0. Justin Lange got the win for the Beavers, pitching six of the seven innings and only giving up three hits and striking out seven. Lucas Hadaway pitched the seventh and final inning to pick up the save. Neil Marshall lead the Beavers with two runs scored and Tanner Truesdell drove in two of the three runs.
The Beavers started out Monday with a 13-5 trouncing of Bethany Lutheran. They outhit Bethany Lutheran 15 to 6 and six Beavers had two hits. Jacob Hadaway threw four innings and gave up five hits yet struck out five. Wes Onken came in and threw two scoreless innings, and Charlie Ruff finished off the game with one inning pitched with three walks, but the Beavers still walked away with the victory.
The second game of the doubleheader turned out to be even more of a blowout than the first with the Beavers winning 12-2. Noah Paper led the way for the Beavers with three hits and was tied with four other Beavers by scoring two runs. Freshman Noah Paper said that his teammates really helped him.
“It was pretty cool. It helped that my teammates were getting hits as well, and I just did the best that I could,” Paper said.
Jake Bjorkgren struck out one and gave up two hits over six innings and Tyson Valentine threw a scoreless seventh to seal the victory for the Beavers.
Tuesday may have been the toughest of the five games for the Beavers. The Beavers faced a five run deficit going into the fourth, but that wasn’t a big enough hole to keep the Beavers away. Bryce Wessels had the first RBI and put the Beavers on the board. The Beavers finally took the lead with a Tanner Truesdell double. Bennett Mann threw out a runner trying to score from third in the eighth inning, completing an inning ending double play. The Beavers used four pitchers on the day, including Ian Grigsby, Jake Lewis, Cam Beatty and Lucas Hadaway. The Beavers won 6-5.
“We kept chipping away at the score the whole game. We all stayed confident and just kept making the plays we needed,” Wessels said.
The Beavers go to Nebraska Wesleyan this weekend for a three-game series. The double-header on Saturday starts at 1 P.M.
