Cheyanne Boland drilled a three-run, walk-off home run to dead center in the fifth inning of the opener against Northwestern College (IA) to send the Beavers to a 12-3 victory before the bats went more silent in the nightcap as the Red Raiders scored a pair of late runs for a 3-1 win.

Boland entered the day leading the team in average, hits and RBI, and continued to shine, as she went 3-for-4 in the opener with an RBI double in the first and the three-run homer in the fifth.  She finished with five RBI and two runs scored.

Katie Yoder posted two hits and a pair of walks from the leadoff spot, to go along with three RBI and three runs scored.  Ashley Gibbs also registered two hits and score twice.

Boland put the Beavers in front 1-0 with her double in the first before Yoder added a two-run double in the second.  She then scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.

The Red Raiders got one of those runs back in the third only to see BVU answer with three RBI singles in the fourth before Autumn Boland ripped an RBI triple to make it 9-1.

Northwestern chalked up two runs in the fifth to get within six and force BVU to bat in the bottom half.  Haley Stevens got the rally started with a leadoff walk before Lacey Vokt later pinch ran for her.  Yoder then walked with two outs to set up Boland's dramatic blast.

Jenna Falline improved to 2-2 on the year after the complete-game effort.  She scattered eight hits, while striking out three.

BVU couldn't connect for the big timely hit in the nightcap as Northwestern broke a 1-1 tie with single runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.

The Beavers had runners at second and third and just one out in the second but ended the threat with consecutive strikeouts.  Jeanne Bramhall doubled to lead off the fourth and later stole third before scoring on Marissa Schmidt's RBI single.  Schmidt then stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice, but was stranded there.

The Red Raiders then came through with a pair of RBI singles in the final two innings as BVU was retired in order in both.

Schmidt finished with two of the team's five hits, as Bramhall had the lone extra-base knock.

Moriah Guyett got the start and suffered the loss despite allowing just two runs and striking out five over six innings of work. 

Buena Vista is now 4-4 on the year and will get set to play nine games over a five-day span during its annual Spring Break trip to Clermont, Fla., from March 19-23.  The Beavers open with Scranton and William Paterson on the 19th and 4:00pm and 6:00pm.