Griffin Trunslow | Staff Writer
Tanner Truesdell is a junior accounting major at Buena Vista University (BVU) from Clear Lake, Iowa. Truesdell is the starting left fielder for the defending Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) champion baseball team.
Truesdell has been batting in the three spot for the Beavers for the majority of the season and has had success at the plate. Truesdell leads the team in batting average (.410), homeruns (3), runners batted in (30), and hits (41). This hasn’t gone unnoticed as 15th year head coach Steve Eddie sees Truesdell as a leader by example.
“Tanner is a leader by the way he goes about his business. He plays hard; he works at his game; and he will do whatever it takes to give us the best chance to win,” Eddie said.
Not only has Truesdell helped the team with his impressive statistics, he has helped by creating the relaxed environment for his teammates as junior centerfielder Neil Marshall explains.
“Tanner is a wonderful teammate. He’s always supportive and positive and gets along with everyone, and he’s always fun to be around. We wouldn’t be near as successful without Tanner this year. There have been times where he’s carried us offensively when others have struggled. You look at the Wartburg series and without him we may not win those two Saturday games. His home runs gave us a spark offensively,” Marshall said.
The Beavers currently sit fourth in the conference with a record of 17-8 and 7-7 in conference play, but Truesdell sees a positive finish for the team in the future.
“I normally don’t like looking into the future, but I would say my goals are to make it back to regionals like we did last year. We have a lot of new players on the team this year, and I think they deserve a chance to be in the same spot that we were last year. Another goal would be either win conference or the conference tourney so we can dog pile. Before last year, I’d never been in a dog pile in any high school sport and after experiencing it, it’s all I’ve wanted since, and I know a lot of the payers on the team feel the same as I do,” Truesdell said.
The Beavers start a six game home stand as the will play a two day double header against Simpson College starting Friday, Apr. 17th at 3:30 p.m. and going to Saturday, Apr. 18th starting at 3:00 p.m. followed by a double header against Coe College on Tuesday, Apr. 21st starting at 3:30 p.m.
Graphic by Justice Gage
Photo by Mikaela O’Brien
