The 25th-ranked Buena Vista baseball team finished off the opening weekend of the Iowa Conference schedule in a dominating way by pounding out 24 hits on Sunday, as the Beavers picked up a pair of victories to complete the four-game sweep over visiting Loras College.

In the opener, the game was tied 1-1 in the fifth before the Beavers broke the game open in a big way.  Cam Johnson stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and blasted a grand slam to dead center on the very first pitch he saw to give BVU a 5-1 lead.  For the second straight day, the Beavers went back-to-back, as Bennett Mann drilled the first pitch he saw over the fence in right to make it 6-1.

Tanner Truesdell extended the lead to 7-1 in the sixth with an RBI single before Mann was later hit by a pitch to make it 8-1.  Dalton Mason, who relieved starter Jake Lewis with two outs in the fifth, then worked around a two-out infield single in the seventh to close the door and pick up his second win.

Neil Marshall doubled and drove home one run, as he and Kolby Hilgenberg were the only two Beavers with multiple hits in the contest.  Brandon Wessels was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and scored two more runs.

Lewis surrendered just the one run on four hits over 4.2 innings, while striking out four and walking four.  Mason allowed just two hits and struck out four over the final 2.1 innings.

The win also marked the 350th in the career of head coach Steve Eddie, who now holds a career record of 351-263-2 in his 16-plus seasons.

The Duhawks built a 4-0 lead in the nightcap thru three-and-a-half innings before the bats quickly came to life for BVU.

Kendall Candor put the team on the board when he lined a bases loaded, three-run double to center field, and then came around to score and tie the game up on a Noah Paper RBI single.  Ryan Steim then put BVU in front for the first time in the contest with a two-run triple and then scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-4.

Wessels and Marshall would each double home a run in the sixth before Mann homered for the second time on the day - this one a two-run shot - to extend the lead to 11-4.

Loras got one run back in the eighth on a solo home run before Tanner Truesdell got that run right back in the bottom half when he launched a solo home run of his own.

The Duhawks would put together a rally in the ninth and get as close as 12-9 before Wes Onken came on and threw one pitch to record his league-leading sixth save of the year.

Mann was 3-for-4 in the contest with a double, home run, two RBI and two runs scored, while Candor also added a career-high three base knocks and drove in three.  BVU finished with 15 hits in the contest, including 10 for extra bases.

Keenan Jones went seven solid innings for the Beavers and improved to 2-1 on the year.  Just two of the four runs he allowed were earned, as he struck out five and issued just one walk.

Ryan Duncan took over to start the eighth and worked 1.1 innings, allowing four runs on six hits.  Charlie Ruff came on and allowed a run on one hit over one-third of an inning before turning things over to Onken.

Buena Vista has now won eight straight games and improves to 13-3 on the year (4-0 IIAC).  It will look to add to the win column on Tuesday afternoon when it hosts Coe College (8-6, 4-2 IIAC) in a doubleheader starting at 3:30pm.