The Buena Vista softball team put a solid ending to its regular season on Tuesday afternoon by sweeping a doubleheader from Grinnell College on Senior Day, winning both games in five innings.

BVU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game one when Jeanne Bramhall belted her team leading seventh home run of the year in the first inning.  Senior Lesa Turnquist scored on a wild pitch in the second inning before fellow senior Jordon Pilcher drove home another on a fielder's choice to make it 5-0 after two.

Buena Vista then blew the game open in the fourth by getting timely hitting and also taking advantage of some shaky Pioneer defense to score five more runs and build a 10-0 lead. 

Hayden singled to right field and wound up on third after a fielding error by the Grinnell right fielder.  Cortney Weaver, along with Turnquist scored on the play to make it 7-0.  Hayden then scored one batter later when Pilcher reached on an error by the second baseman, and after she stole second, Marissa Schmidt singled her home and advanced to second on the throw.

Katie Yoder had the only extra base hit of the inning, doubling to right center to score pincher runner Lacey Vokt and make it 10-0.

Grinnell got runners to second and third with one out in the fifth and scored its only run on a little dribbler back to the mound that BVU wound up throwing a runner out trying to advance to third.  The next batter grounded out to end the game.

Schmidt, Bramhall and Turnquist each turned in two hits for BVU which totaled nine in the contest.  Pilcher, Turnquist and Weaver all scored two runs with Pilcher and Turnquist each stealing one base.

Jenna Falline picked up the complete-game victory on the mound for BVU to improve to 7-8 overall.  She scattered five hits, walked one and struck out three while facing just four batters over the minimum.

BVU used a big six-run fifth inning in game two en route to the sweep.  Hayden led off the game for BVU with a triple to right center field and later scored on a wild pitch to give the Beavers an early 1-0 lead.  She then doubled to right center in the second to score a pair before scoring one batter later on Pilcher's double.

Grinnell got on the board in the third with an RBI double and then made it 4-2 in the fifth by plating an unearned run on a throwing error by BVU.

It was all Beavers from there as they started the home half of the inning with four straight hits, including back-to-back doubles from Cheyanne Boland and Haley Stevens, respectively, to make it a 7-2 contest.  Pilcher later singled home a run to make it 8-2 before a wild throw from the Pioneers two batters later scored the final two runs.

Hayden fell a home run shy of the cycle in her final career home game, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored.  Pilcher also added two more hits in her final career home game and drove in two.

Yoder and Boland each chimed in with two base hits as BVU held a 13-4 advantage over the Pioneers.

Keely Bycroft improved to 4-2 with the complete-game effort, allowing just four hits, striking out four and walking two.

The two wins improve the Beavers to 18-19-1 on the year and giving the team its most wins in a single season since going 22-13 back in 2001.  The team will now prepare itself for this weekend's Iowa Conference Tournament which gets underway in Decorah, Iowa on Friday, May 1.  BVU will be the fifth seed and face fourth-seed Coe College at 1:00pm.  That winner will advance to play top-seed Luther College on Saturday at 11:00am.

The tournament has switched formats beginning this year and will be a single elimination event with the champion earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Regional Tournament.