The Buena Vista baseball team is eager to get back onto the field for the first time in over a week after battling through the recenter winter snowstorms when it now travels to Cedar Rapids to play Coe College in a three-game weekend series originally scheduled to take place in Storm Lake.

BVU looks to bounce back after dropping a heartbreaking 11-10 Iowa Conference road contest at Nebraska Wesleyan back on April 10.  BVU led 10-5 going into the ninth inning, but surrendered six runs to the Prairie Wolves in the inning, as NWU wins the game and took 2-of-3 in the series.

Despite the loss, the Beavers still stand at 7-4 in league play and are just two games back in the loss column in the league standings.  The Kohawks stip atop those standings at 9-2 (15-9 overall).  It had won five straight conference games before losing 3-2 (10 innings) in game two of a doubleheader against Loras College on Tuesday afternoon.  Although the games this weekend will be played at Daniels Park in Cedar Rapids, Buena Vista will still be the home team in all three games.

Coe is hitting a league-high .310 during conference play with Buena Vista in fifth at .281.  The teams are also in the top-four in hits, runs and doubles.  BVU is also third with 20 stolen bases.  Both teams are right in the middle of the pack in terms of defense with each posting a .948 fielding percentage - committing 22 errors apiece.

The game will come down to which pitching staff can out-perform the other.  The Kohawks currently have the second-best ERA during confernece play at 3.03 while Buena Vista is fourth at 3.28.  Strikeouts and walks for both sides are nearly equal.  Opponents are hitting just .227 off Coe pitching compared to .267 against BVU hurlers.

The Kohawks have three players ranked in the top-10 of the league in batting average, led by the Jordan Kaplan, who's hitting a league-best .477 with four doubles, two home runs and 14 runs scored over 11 games.  Grant Henning is fourth at .425 and has 10 doubles and a league-best .800 slugging percentage.  Coleman Roberts is right behind in fifth for Buena Vista, hitting .413 during confernece play with three doubles and seven runs scored.

Jack Greene is 2-0 in his three IIAC appearances this season with a 0.40 ERA over 22 innings pitched.  He has struck out 26 batters and issued only eight walks as opponents are hitting just .133.  For the Beavers, Eric LaRue has made a pair of IIAC starts and is 0-1 with a 1.15 ERA in 15.2 innings.  Tyler Heineman is 2-0 with a respectable 2.55 ERA in his three appearances (two starts).  He has 13 strikeouts and only three walks for the Beavers.

Buena Vista took 2-of-3 from the Kohawks during their series in Cedar Rapids a year ago before Coe edged BVU 5-4 to end its season one game shy of the championship series of the Iowa Conference Tournament.  Overall, BVU has won eight of the last 10 games played between the two teams, dating back to the final game of the 2015 campaign.

Friday's single nine-inning game is scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. first pitch while Saturday's twin bill is scheduled to get underway at 1:00 p.m.  Live stats and video will be available for all three games and are linked at bvuathletics.com