Buena Vista nearly surrendered an 8-1 lead late, but a great defensive play with the tying run on third gave the Beavers an 8-7 victory over Nebraska Wesleyan on Tuesday night to complete the season sweep of the Prairie Wolves.

NWU chipped away at the BVU lead by plating two runs in the eighth inning only to add four more in the ninth.  The Prairie Wolves nearly tied it, but second baseman Bryce Rheault made a stellar diving stab at a ball up the middle and flipped to Noah Paper covering second for the force out.

BVU trailed 1-0 in the first after allowing a leadoff hit and committing a pair of defensive miscues.  The Beavers, however, picked up where they left off on Sunday by scoring four runs in the home half and grabbing a 4-1 lead.  Devin Wagenman had an RBI double followed by a Kendall Candor RBI single.  BVU scored a run on a double play ground out before Peyton Renning laced a single to left for the final run.

As a team, the Beavers posted eight hits over their first 13 official at-bats in the contest.

Wagenman made it a 5-1 lead in the second with a run-scoring single, giving him a team-leading 20 RBI on the year.

That's how things would stand until BVU added what turned out to be three big insurance runs in the seventh on RBI's from Ethan McHenry, Renning and Rheault.

The Prairie Wolves got a bases loaded walk and an RBI single in the eighth to get within 8-3 before scoring four two-out runs in the ninth and nearly coming all the way back before Rheault's second defensive gem of the night secured the win for BVU.

Wagenman went 3-for-5 at the plate for BVU with a pair of RBI's and two runs scored while Renning also registered three hits.  Hilgenberg followed with two hits and two runs scored while Candor also chipped in with two base knocks.

Nebraska Wesleyan (11-17, 4-8 IIAC) actually outhit BVU, 15-13, but 14 of those were singles compared to Buena Vista's three extra-base knocks.

Jake Lewis improved to 5-1 on the mound for the Beavers, pitching six innings, scattering six hits while striking out two and walking three. After Andy Bower and Tate Holmes combined to work the next 2.2 innings, Dalton Mason came on to get the final out but not before surrendering four hits and being charged with the final run, en route to his IIAC-leading fifth save of the year.

Buena Vista improves to 16-8 overall (7-2 IIAC) and is now in a three-way tie atop the IIAC standings with Wartburg College and the University of Dubuque.

The Beavers will now host Central College (13-12, 5-4 IIAC) for a three-game weekend series beginning with the single nine-inning contest on Friday, April 14, at 6:00pm.