Tanner Hoops | Staff Writer
The Buena Vista University (BVU) baseball team traveled to Cedar Rapids last week, May 7-8, to compete at the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) baseball tournament. To begin their quest for a second straight conference tournament title, the 4th-seeded Beavers fell to the 5th-seeded Luther College Norse at Daniels Park Thursday afternoon with a final score of 5-1.
Luther got on the board first in the 2nd inning with a 2-out single by Matt Larson following a fielding error, putting the Norse up 1-0. In the bottom half of the inning, junior Bennett Mann reached on an error with 2 outs but was stranded. Luther exploded for three more runs in the top of the 3rd inning, first off an RBI single to right field by Alex Weber, then via a 2-run base knock by Joe Silversmith.
Freshman Thomas Wisecup singled to lead off the bottom of the 3rd but the Beavers were unable to move him around. Wisecup’s single turned out to be the Beavers’ only hit of the game. Each team’s starting pitcher was locked in from there and faced the minimum over the next four innings. Luther added an insurance run in the eighth inning as Silversmith singled in his 3rd RBI of the game, prompting the Beavers to bring in relief pitcher Ian Grigsby.
The Beavers threatened in the bottom of the 9th, as the inning began with back-to-back walks to Kendall Candor and Neil Marshall respectively. With one out in the inning, Tanner Truesdell brought in Candor via an RBI groundout but the next batter, Eric Gurbacki, flew out to right field for the game’s final out.
Jake Bjorkgren was saddled with the loss, going 7 2/3 innings, giving up five runs, three earned, on eleven hits, while striking out two. Grigsby tossed 1 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball, while giving up one hit. Teddy Klingsporn was the winning pitcher. The Norse ace went the distance, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out eleven batters.
Friday morning, the Beavers fell to 6th-seeded Loras College in the tournament’s first elimination game by a score of 5-1 at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium. In the top of the 1st, Duhawk third baseman Patrick Walsh cranked a two-run homerun over the right field fence off Beaver starting pitcher Wes Onken.
The Beavers cut the lead in half in the home half of the inning as Neil Marshall tripled on the first pitch offered to him by Duhawk starting pitcher Adam Schwoebel and was brought in to score via an RBI groundout by Kolby Hilgenberg.
The score remained 2-1 until the top of the 3rd when Loras exploded for three runs via an RBI single to left field and a two-run double, all coming with two outs. In the fourth inning, Onken was pulled in favor of relief pitcher Kendall Hazel, who held the Duhawks scoreless over the next five innings. The Beavers’ best chance came in the bottom of the eighth when a pair of singles and a Loras fielding error loaded the bases with nobody out but the Beavers failed to plate any runs.
Lucas Hadaway pitched the final inning for Buena Vista and stranded one base runner. The Beavers were unable to plate a run in the 9th to account for the game’s 5-1 final score. Onken took the loss for Buena Vista, giving up five runs on six hits in three innings and issuing two walks. Hazel tossed five innings of shutout ball, scattering two hits, two walks, and striking out six batters.
Hadaway pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing one walk and striking out two. Schwoebel was the winning pitcher, tossing his seventh complete game of the season, giving one earned run on ten hits while striking out three batters.
“Great season with a lot of great memories,” Truesdell said. “Couldn’t have asked for a better group of seniors that I’m lucky I get to call my friends.”
Some members of the team are looking to building off of this in the upcoming season.
“Endings like that just fuel the fire. Already hungry for more,” infielder Cam Johnson said.
The Beavers end their season at 25-16 overall, 15-13 in the IIAC, and say goodbye to six seniors.
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons
