The Buena Vista baseball team was three outs away from a doubleheader sweep on Saturday afternoon against Luther College, but the Norse rallied in the nightcap with four runs in the bottom of the ninth to edge the Beavers, 10-9.  BVU won the opener, 6-0.

Scott Harris was in charge from the get-go in game one for BVU as he picked up the win in a complete-game effort.  He allowed just four hits, struck out eight and walked just one.

He got the runs he needed right from the start as the Beavers scored in each of the first three innings before adding a pair of late insurance runs.

Senior Joe Paletta doubled home the game's first run in the top of the first before later scoring on Tanner Truesdell's RBI groundout.

Sophomore Brandon Wessels made it a 3-0 lead in the second with an RBI single before senior Ryan Titman followed with RBI's in both the third and fifth innings.  Devon Harms turned in an RBI single in the seventh for the game's final score.

Neil Marshall and Weston Foxx each turned in two hits to help lead the Beavers at the plate with Foxx also scoring twice.

The Beavers kept the momentum going into game two, building a 4-0 lead after just one-half inning.  The Norse got one of those runs back in the bottom half before BVU again pushed the margin back to four with a run in the second.

Luther put a three-spot on the board in the third to get with 5-4 and would then tie it in the fourth by scoring on a wild pitch.

The Beavers then went back in front at 6-5 in the fifth when freshman Bryce Wessels blasted his first career home run.  The lead grew to 8-5 in the sixth thanks to RBI singles from Truesdell and Foxx, respectively.

Luther then got one of those runs back in the bottom of the sixth before Brandon Wessels homered to left in the seventh to make it a 9-6 contest.

That's the way the game stood until the ninth when the Norse took advantage of a key BVU error and scored four unearned runs in the inning, capped by a walk-off, run-run single.

BVU out-hit the Norse, 15-11, and got three-hit performances from Foxx and Truesdell.  Jeremy Lambert finished with two hits, including the team's lone double and also drove in two runs.  Truesdell and Foxx each drove in a pair with Brandon Wessels also scoring three times.

Jake Hadaway got the start for BVU and went the first four innings, allowing five runs on five hits.  Justin Lange worked the next 1.2 innings, allowing an unearned run on two hits.  Ian Grigsby would suffer his first loss of the year after being charged with the four unearned runs on four hits, while striking out four.

Buena Vista sits at 13-3 overall (2-2 IIAC) and will now return home and get set to play its home opener on Tuesday afternoon by hosting Coe College in a doubleheader beginning at 3:30pm.