The Buena Vista baseball team ran its overall win streak to three games with a pair of thrilling comeback victories on Monday over Carthage and Kalamazoo, respectively, during the annual Tucson Invitational.

BVU trailed Carthage 5-4 heading to the ninth innning of Monday's opener before chalking up five runs and holding off a Redmen rally in the home half to pick up the 9-6 victory.

Devin Wagenman plated the game's first run with his RBI groundout in the first inning.  Carthage then scored five unanswered runs in the fourth inning to grab a 5-1 lead.

Porter Sartor doubled home a pair of runs in the sixth while Cale Ewald added a sacrifice fly to get BVU back within one.

That's how things stood until Buena Vista put up a four-spot in the ninth inning to regain the lead.  Ethan McHenry tied the game with a bases loaded walk before Kendall Candor put BVU in front with an RBI single.  After Noah Paper recorded an RBI ground out, Peyton Renning capped a stellar game with an RBI triple as Sartor drove in another with a double to to left.

The Redmen (3-5) then added a run in the ninth and had the bases loaded before a key strikeout, a pick-off and a pop out ended the game.

Renning finished the game 4-for-5 with the RBI and a run scored as Sartor went 2-for-3 with a walk, three RBI.  Noah Paper also added to base knocks and scored once and Bryce Rheault went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks and two runs scored.

Gage Smart picked up his first collegiate win in relief as he worked around the jam in the ninth, allowing the one unearned run and two hits while striking out one.  Egan Bonde got the start and worked the first four innings and was charged with five runs (three earned) on seven hits.  Andrew Bower worked a career-high four scoreless innings of relief, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out a career-high six.

In the nightcap against Kalamazoo, the game had a pair of lead changes through the first four innings before BVU broke the game open with a six-run sixth inning that included three run-scoring doubles.  McHenry and Paper turned in RBi doubles to start the scoring before a two-run single from Rheault made it a 6-3 lead.  Two batters later, it was Wagenman coming through with a two-run double that extended the margin to 8-3.

Kalamazoo got two of those runs back in the home half to trim its deficit to 8-5, but Paper registered an RBI single in the seventh before Sartor capped the scoring with a run-scoring single of his own in the ninth.

Renning turned in a career-high four hits to again help lead the offensive surge for the Beavers, and he also registered the team's only stolen base of the contest.  Wagenman went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI and runs scored while Paper had two hits and three RBI's.

Blake Vande Hoef made his collegiate debut on the hill for BVU, going four innings, allowing three runs on two hits, striking out two and walking a pair.  Casey Hendricks picked up his first career victory, taking over for Vande Hoef and going 1.2 innings of releif, allowing two runs on two hits.

Jayden Clark and Dalton Mason then combined to work a scoreless 3.1 innings to close the door, while allowing only three hits and handing Kalamazoo only its second loss of the year (5-2).

Buena Vista has now won three straight games and improves to 7-5 overall.  The team gets a much-deserved day off on Tuesday and will conclude the non-conference portion of its trip on Wednesday with a single game against Oberlin.  BVU then opens Iowa Conference play with a three-game weekend series against Luther beginning with a single game on Friday afternoon.