The Buena Vista baseball team began defense of its IIAC regular season title on Friday afternoon in Dubuque by splitting a doubleheader with the Spartans, winning the opener, 7-4, before Dubuque scored the game's final four runs to take game two, 8-4.

BVU trailed 2-0 after three innings of game on before using a four-run fourth to take a 4-2 lead.  Senior Eric Gurbacki, the reigning IIAC Male Athlete of the Week, came through with a big two-run single to plate the first two runs for the Beavers which was followed up by a two-run double by freshman Thomas Wisecup.

After the Spartans responded in the home half to even things back up at 4-4, Gurbacki again came through in the sixth with an RBI single that scored junior Bennett Mann.  Neil Marshall then drove home a pair of big insurance runs for a 7-4 lead.

Lefthander Justin Lange worked a perfect sixth before turning things over to senior Lucas Hadway who registerd a pair of strikeouts during a 1-2-3 seventh en route to his fifth save of the year.  Lange scattered six hits and allowed only two earned runs in his six innings of work while improving to 4-0 on the year.

Gurbacki went 2-for-4 with three RBI with Mann going 1-for-3 with a pair of runs scored.  Ryan Duncan also scored two runs, while Marshall went 1-for-4 with his big two-run single.

The Spartans against jumped out to an early lead, plating three runs in the first inning for a 3-0 lead.  BVU got one of those runs back in the second on Wisecup's RBI single to right.

Dubuque got that run back in the third for a 4-1 lead before the Beavers fought back with a big three-run fifth inning to square things up at 4-4.  Brandon Wessels single home the first run before the final two runs scored on an error.

The Spartans, however, went back in front in the bottom half with a bases loaded hit-by-pitch before adding three insurance runs in the eighth.

BVU tried to rally in the eighth by getting runners on first and second with one out but Dubuque turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

Brandon Wessels went 3-for-5 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored to go along with one stole base.  Marshall finished with one hit and a run scored as did Mann and Devon Harms.

Kendall Hazell got the start and suffered his first loss of the year (1-1) after being charged with five runs (three earned) on eight hits while striking out six and walking three.  Wes Onken surrendered two runs on two hits over the next 3.1 innings while striking out four before Cam Beatty worked the final 0.1 innings, allowing a run on one hit while issuing one walk.

Daniel Cassanova went 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored to lead Dubuque which improved to 6-8 (1-1 IIAC).

The loss snapped Buena Vista's six-game win streak and dropped the Beavers to 11-2 overall (1-1 IIAC).  The two teams will wrap up the four-game series with another doubleheader on Saturday afternoon starting at 1:00pm.