The Buena Vista baseball team got its spring break trip off on a hot start on Sunday by chalking up 35 runs in two games to help run its overall win streak this season to six games.  The Beavers downed Gustavus Adolphus 19-9 in their opener before rolling past Carthage (Wis.), 16-2.

In the opener with the Gusties, BVU wasted little time putting its offense to work.  As the visitors in the contest, the Beavers plated a pair of first inning runs before exploding for seven runs in the second for a 9-0 lead.

Gustavus got one of those runs back in the bottom of the second and got as close as 9-4 in the fifth with three more runs.

BVU quickly answered with five runs in the sixth, including a big two-run double from senior Joe Paletta, who finished with three hits and a game-high four RBI.  The Gusties came back in the bottom half with four runs of their own, but it was all BVU from there.

The Beavers chalked up two more runs in the seventh for a 16-8 cushion before adding three more in the ninth.  Justin Lange, who worked the final four innings to earn his first career save, allowed a harmless run in the ninth to finish things off.  He scattered just three hits, was charged with just the one run, while striking out five and walking two.

Jake Bjorkgren went five innings to pick up his second win of the year.  He allowed eight earned runs on 14 hits, to go along with three strikeouts.

Tanner Truesdell and Weston Foxx each turned in four hits apiece to help lead the attack at the dish.  Foxx doubled once and drove in three with Truesdell adding a triple and plating two.  Ryan Titman also added a season-best three hits and scored three times, as the Beavers pounded out a season-best 21 base hits.  The 19 runs scored were the most since posting that same total back in 2012 during a win against Nebraska Wesleyan.

Against Carthage, the game was scoreless through the first three innings before the Beavers finally broke through in the fourth with four runs before adding another in the fifth for a 5-0 lead. 

Neil Marshall, who has continued his strong start to the year, singled to lead off the fourth and came around to score one batter later when Brandon Wessels tripled to right center.  Paletta followed with an RBI single and came around to score three batters later on Bryce Wessels' RB double to left.  Alex Brown also singled home a run to cap the scoring.

Bryce Wessels, who was one of four players to finish the game with three hits, again came through in the fifth with a two-out RBI single to make it 5-0.

Carthage, which dipped to 6-3 with the loss, scored a run in both the fifth and sixth innings for its only two runs.

The Beavers, who scored in each of the final six innings, added two more runs in the sixth before posting four runs in both the seventh and eighth innings before closing out with their final run in the ninth.

Marshall also finished with three hits, to go along with two RBI and three runs scored from the lead-off spot.  Brandon Wessels also tallied three hits and drove in three, while Foxx tallied three hits and scored three times.  Brown chimed in with two hits and also drove in three and scored three times.

After 21 hits against the Gusties, BVU posted 19 more against the Red Men, while also taking advantage of six errors.

The 16 runs were more than enough for senior starter Jon Ringblom, who came in with an ERA just over 1.00.  The reigning Iowa Conference Pitcher of the Week, improved to 2-0 in his three starts by going seven innings, allowing just two runs on six hits, while striking out five and walking only one.

Tyson Valentine and Cam Beatty each worked one inning in relief and combined to allow just one hit while striking out one.

Buena Vista has now won six straight games overall and improve to 8-1 on the year.  The Beavers will face the Gusties again on Monday for their only game of the day, starting at 10:30am.