Buena Vista scored five times over the final two innings and got a gutsy pitching performance from senior Jon Ringblom, and the Beavers began Iowa Conference Tournament play on Thursday night with a 6-1 victory over fourth-seed Loras College.

Ringblom worked around a trio of walks over the first couple innings before the Duhawks broke the scoreless game in the fourth on a two-out wild pitch.  The very next pitch was a grounder to second to end the inning.

BVU threatened in the fifth with runners at first and second and just one out, but had the lead runner thrown out at third on a wild pitch just off to the first base side of the catcher.

The teams combined for five hits over the first 4.5 innings before the Beavers tallied three in their half of the fifth to tie things up.

Neil Marshall lined a single to center to start the inning before Brandon Wessels pushed a blooper over first to put runners at first and second with no outs.  Joe Paletta then moved each up a base with a nice two-strike bunt to third.

Weston Foxx later lifted a high blooper out into shallow left center field that scored Marshall from third, but Wessels was thrown out at third trying to advance.  Foxx did move to second on throw before Jeremy Lambert was thrown out at first following a nice sliding stop up the middle by the Duhawk second baseman to end the inning.

The Beaver bats would come to life in the seventh as they took their first lead of the game. Marshall drove in a pair with a double to the gap in left center followed by a double to the left field corner by Brandon Wessels.

Back-to-back RBI singles from Ryan Titman and Nick Schlecht in the eighth then extended the lead to 6-1.

Ringblom settled down after laboring in the early innings to post his seventh complete-game of the year and improves to 7-2 overall.  He allowed just five hits, struck out seven and walked four while throwing 131 pitches.

Marshall went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored to help lift the team offensively. Foxx, Schlecht and Brandon Wessels all added two hits and an RBI while Titman went 3-for-4 with an RBI from the eighth spot in the order.

The win improves Buena Vista to 34-7 on the year which matches a school record for wins in a season.  The Beavers will advance to play Central College on Friday afternoon at 1:00pm.  The Dutch, seeded third, picked up a 12-0 win over sixth-seed Coe to start the day before topping second-seed Wartburg, 6-1.