The bats were alive and well during Friday night's series opener against visiting Central College as BVU erupted for an 11-2 victory, but were held in check during game two as the Dutch hung on for a narrow 7-6 decision.

Kendall Candor launched his third home run in as many games, while Tanner Truesdell matched Bennett Mann for the team lead with his fifth of the year, to help spark the scoring for BVU in game one.

Truesdell connected in the first inning for a two-run shot that gave the Beavers an early 2-0 lead.  BVU followed with two more in the second before the Dutch got a run in the third to make it 4-2.

Candor led off the fourth inning with a solo shot that stayed just inside of the foul pole in left to make it 5-1.  That helped spark a three-run inning, as Neil Marshall doubled home a run before scoring on Brandon Wessels' RBI singel to center.

Devin Wagenman doubled home BVU's sixth run an inning later before Truesdell drove home two more with a single through the right side.

The Dutch added a late run in the sixth, but it was not near enough, as Jacob Hadaway and Ryan Duncan combined on a three-hitter.

Marshall did his job from the leadoff spot, going 2-for-2 with a double and a pair of walks, drove home two and scored three times.  Truesdell was 2-for-3 with a walk and four RBI, while Wagenman tallied a pair of hits in four at-bats, to go along with two runs scored.

Hadaway went the first six innings on the mound for BVU and allowed both runs on three hits.  He also walked three and struck out three.  Duncan worked around a pair of walks to pitch a scoreless seventh.

The Dutch jumped on the board with a pair of runs in the first inning of game two before BVU came right back in the home half with two of its own, including an RBI single from Wessels that scored Marshall.  Wessels later scored on a passed ball.

Candor homered to leadoff the second inning and give the Beavers a 3-2 lead.  Michael Zeller later scored on a wild pitch before Marshall drove in a run with an RBI groundout, pushing the lead to 5-2.

The Dutch got a big two-run home run in the fourth to make it a 5-4 before a solo shot in the fifth tied things at 5-5.

Central went on to take a 7-5 lead with a pair of runs in the seventh before the Beavers tried to make a late rally.

Wagenman's sacrifice fly in the bottom half cut the deficit in half, but the Beavers were unable to push across any more as they left the bases loaded.

BVU worked around a pair of Central hits in the eighth as well as one in the ninth.

The Beavers nearly tied it in the ninth after Bennett Mann scorched a ball to right field that got caught up in the wind just enough for the Central rightfielder to haul it in just in front of the fence.

Marshall added two more hits in the contest while also scoring once, while Noah Paper also added two base knocks.  Wessels added one more hit and enters Saturday's doubleheader needing only three hits to become just the third player in school history to reach 200 in his career.

Jake Lewis went the first five innings for BVU, allowing five runs on six hits, while walking two and striking out two.  Wes Onken was tagged for six hits and two runs over three innings before Dalton Mason came on to work the ninth and working around a hit to record a strikeout.

The loss was the Beavers' first home defeat of the year (7-1), as they now stand at 17-7 overall (8-4 IIAC).  They'll look to win the series with a pair of wins on Saturday with game one of the doubleheader starting at 1:00pm.