The Buena Vista baseball team tallied 20 runs and hit four home runs on the day en route to a doubleheader sweep that capped off the four-game weekend sweep at Luther College on Monday afternoon.  In the process, the Beavers assured themselves of no worse than a second-place IIAC finish.

Luther took its first lead of the series with a pair of runs in the second inning of the opener before Tyson Valentine settled in and the Beaver bats came to life.

BVU began to take control with four runs in the third, capped by an RBI-double from Michael Zellar. 

Tanner Truesdell, who singled home the first run of the third, blasted a solo home run to right in the fifth, making it a 5-2 contest.

Neil Marshall followed in the sixth with a two-run blast to right pushing the cushion to 7-2 before a two-run double by Zellar in the seventh highlighted a three-run frame.

Truesdell and Noah Paper each went 3-for-4 in the game while Zellar and Marshall followed with two.  Marshall and Truesdell each scored twice.

Valentine scattered seven hits, walked one and struck out two, as he pitched his third straight complete-game, improving to 5-0 on the year.

A wild pitch put BVU ontop early in game two before Marshall doubled home a run to make it 2-0.

Marshall and Candor later hit solo home runs to continue the team's power surge and give it a 5-0 lead.  With the four home runs on the day, BVU has now hit 43 on the year.  It's the first time since 1974 (53) that a Beaver team has reached 40 in a single season.

The Norse cut into the lead with a run in the sixth, but the Beaver pitching was on its game all weekend, and didn't allow another run. 

Paper's two-run single highlighted a three-run seventh before the Beavers added two more in the eighth.

Marshall fell a triple shy of the cycle as he concluded a stellar series.  Wagenman also had three hits, two RBI and a pair of runs scored.

Keenan Jones was solid on the mound and evened his season record at 3-3.  He allowed just four hits and an unearned runs over six innings, while walking one and striking out four.  Jake Lewis and Charlie Ruff combined to work three hitless innings while striking out three to close the door on the series.

Buena Vista has now won five straight games to run its overall record to 28-8 (19-5 IIAC) and secure no worse than a top-two regular season finish.  It remains two games back of Wartburg in the loss column with only next weekend's four-game set at Simpson College (11-23, 8-14 IIAC) remaining.  First pitch of Friday's opener is set for 3:30pm.