Wartburg College used a seven-run first inning on Friday night to break things wide open, as the Knights went on to hand the Buena Vista baseball team a tough 10-2 road loss to open up the three-game weekend series in Waverly.

In what was a battle of two teams tied atop the Iowa Conference standings entering the day, Wartburg jumped on BVU ace Jacob Hadaway for seven runs in the opening frame.  Six of those seven runs came on RBI singles after a run-scoring double.

The Knights tacked on another RBI single in the fourth before a pair of unearned runs in the seventh.

Noah Paper came through offensively for BVU with RBI singles in both the seventh and ninth innings, respectively.  Peyton Renning scored both times.  Renning tripled for the only extra-base hit for the Beavers, as he and Paper combined for five of the team's eight hits in the contest.

Hadaway went five innings and was charged with all eight runs (all earned) on nine hits.  He walked four and struck out six.  Egan Bonde worked the next two innings and allowed a pair of unearned runs on two hits.  Tyler Vorrie pitched the final frame and worked around a walk.

Taylor Gilson improved to 6-1 on the mound for the Knights (19-10, 10-3 IIAC) with seven strikeouts and three walks over seven innings.

Buena Vista is now 18-10 overall (9-4 IIAC) and will look to rebound on Saturday when the two teams play a doubleheader starting at 1:00pm.  The Beavers enter the day without a series loss in IIAC play this season.