The Buena Vista baseball team improved to 9-1 overall this season after taking a pair of games on Friday to begin its play during the Wheaton College Invitational. BVU began with a comeback, 4-3, win over St. Mary's (Minn.) in the opener before the bats came to life during a 12-6 victory against Aurora.

St. Mary's (10-3) scored a run in the home half of the first and two more in the third for a 3-0 lead.  After being held to only two hits through the first five innings, the bats slowly began to come to life over the last few frames to help with the comeback.

Junior Brandon Wessels singled to center to lead off the sixth before coming around to score on Tanner Truesdell's double to left center. Bryce Wessels then walked and Bennett Mann was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

The Beavers then used the benefit of a throwing error with one out to get within 3-2 and then tied the game on a fielder's choice.  The team did strand runners at second and third to end the inning.

The score remained tied until the ninth when Ryan Duncan led off with a triple and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single from Neil Marshall. 

St. Mary's had chances late in the game to add on runs but BVU buckled down and kept the Cardinals off the board.  The latest threat came in the bottom half of the ninth when Lucas Hadaway worked around a one-out double and wild pitch to record back-to-back strikeouts for his fourth save of the year.

Brandon Wessels went 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of walks and one run scored.  Mann also walked twice for BVU, while Truesdell and Duncan each added a hit, RBI and one run scored.  Overall, the Cardinals out-hit the Beavers, 8-7.

Cam Beatty worked 1.1 innings of relief to improve to 2-1 on the year.  He scattered a pair of hits and struck out one.  Kendall Hazel got a no-decision in a starting role, pitching five innings, allowing three runs (one earned) on four hits, while walking three and striking out three.

Wes Onken came on with two on and nobody out in the sixth and worked out of the jam without surrendering a run.  He worked a 1.2 innings, and allowed just one hit and struck out one.

St. Mary's, who came in riding a five-game win streak, had two players with two hits, but the Cardinals stranded 11 runnners.

BVU fell behind 2-0 after one-half an inning against Aurora, but from there the Beavers took over.  The bats came to life in the fourth with Duncan and Marshall each posting triples to drive in three runs.  They also got RBI singles Thomas Wisecup and Truesdell.

Duncan then followed a Gurbacki double with a two-bagger of his own in the fifth to make it 7-2 before BVU added to more key insurance runs in the sixth for a 9-2 cushion.  Truesdell, who came off a big weekend last week, added an RBI single in the seventh for a 10-2 margin.

Aurora tried to chip away late, getting three runs in the seventh and one more in the ninth.  The Beavers, however added two late insurance runs in their half of the eighth.

Gurbacki turned in a career-high four hits, including a pair of doubles,  to go along withan RBI and three runs scored.  Duncan was 3-for-5 with a double, triple, three RBI and one run scored, while Truesdell also added three hits and two RBI.

Buena Vista out-hit Aurora, 16-11 and also took advantage of three defensive miscues.

Justin Lange allowed his first runs of the year in the first after issuing a pair of walks but settled down after that and improved to 3-0.  He pitched six innings and allowed just those two early runs while scattering six hits.  He struck out four and walked two.

Senior Ian Grigsby worked the final three frames and was charged with four runs (three earned) on five hits.

Buena Vista has now won four straight games and improves to 9-1 on the year.  It wraps up the Invite by taking on the host school on Saturday afternoon at 2:00pm.  Then after an off-day on Sunday it will travel to Mt. Vernon to take on Cornell College in a single-game at 4:30pm.