Baseball | 4/1/2021 9:33:00 AM

STORM LAKE, Iowa (April 1, 2021) - The Buena Vista University baseball team returns back to its home field this afternoon to begin a big four-game weekend series against Coe College with the first of two doubleheaders.  The match-up is a showdown of the top-two teams in this year's preseason coaches poll.

THE MATCH-UP 
Who: Coe?(11-2, 7-1 A-R-C) vs Buena Vista?(8-5, 6-2 A-R-C) 
When: Thursday, April 1, 2021 | 3:00 p.m. (DH)  |  Live Video  |  Live Stats 
Where: Storm Lake, Iowa | BVU / SL HS Baseball Field 
 
SERIES HISTORY 
Thursday marks the 65th and 66th meetings all-time between the two programs with the series being led by the Kohawks by a close 35-29 record overall...The series dates back to the 1998 campaign where Coe picked up a 9-4 win in the inaugural match-up...Coe has won six of the last eight meetings...BVU won a pair of games over the Kohawks during the 2019 A-R-C Tournament which lifted the Beavers to the tournament championship.
 
LAST 5 MATCH-UPS 

 
LAST TIME OUT 
The Beavers won 3 of 4 games in Dubuque against Loras College this past weekend. In the final game of the series, the Beavers won the contest 4-2 on March 28th. It was all Loras in the opener earlier that day, as it scored six runs in the first at-bat to build an early 6-0 lead.  The lead grew to 10-0 after the Duhawks scored another run in the second and three more in the third.  BVU was only able to scratch across a single run in the fifth on a Jordan Mathewson RBI double. Mathewson went 2-for-3 overall and was the only player with multiple hits in the contest and the only Beaver with an extra-base knock.  

Loras struck first again in the finale by pushing across a single run in the first inning.  Parker Truesdell evened things up in the second with a sacrifice fly in the second before senior Ryley McGregor gave the team the lead for good with a solo home run to right. The Beavers doubled their run total in the seventh when Logan Mueller doubled home Caden Mathewson and McGregor singled home Mueller later in the inning. The Duhawks added a single run in the seventh for the game's final score. 

The Beavers won the series by sweeping Friday night's doubleheader by scores of 6-1 and 15-12.
 
ABOUT BUENA VISTA 
BVU is playing its third conference contest of the season when it faces the Kohawks. Through the 13 games to this point, the team has a .325 BA which is second in the A-R-C.  During league play, the team has bumped that up to a .368 clip that ranks best among all league teams.  Senior Tyler Tennyson is off to a torrid start to conference play by hitting .515 with 17 hits, including four extra-base knocks.  He's also been just as solid on the mound, picking up a pair of complete-games and posting a 2.57 ERA over 14 innings of work.  Calvin Harris is hitting .480 through the first eight league contests with Ryley McGregor right behind af .478.  As a team BVU has six hitters ranked in the top-20 of the league rankings in batting average.  Sophomore Jordan Mathewson is tied for fourth with nine RBI as Parker Truesdell has eight.  The pitching staff has allowed a .298 BA while posting a 6.87 ERA.  Aside from Tennyson's 23 innings pitched overall, sophomore Mason Gehling is next at 16.2.  Those two are both tied for the team lead in strikeouts with 19.  BVU dropped the final game of the four-game series against Loras which snapped the team's 15-game home win streak.

 
ABOUT THE KOHAWKS 
The team has started 11-2 and is coming off a four-game series sweep over Nebraska Wesleyan last weekend.  The team is hitting .297 during conference play which ranks fifth.  It's tied for the league lead through the first eight conference contests in doubles (20) and has swiped a league-best 17 bases in 23 attempts.  Riley LeGrand is third in the conference in all games this season with a .488 average, including four doubles and 14 RBI.  His .674 slugging percentage is also fourth.  TJ Johnson is hitting .429 and also has 14 RBU while stealing 9-of-10 bases.  The pitching staff has helped position the team near the top of the conference standing as well, with three pitchers sitting in the top four in the league with ERA's under 2.00 and each having pitched at least 15 innings overall this season.  TJ Deardorff leads that trio with a 2-0 record and a 0.95 ERA over 19 innings.  He's allowed just two runs, struck out 21 and walked only two.  TJ Johnson is a team-best 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA while working a team-high 26 innings.  As a staff, the Kohawks have struck out 104 and issued only 41 free passes.  It also has chalked up three shutouts and four saves.
 
UP NEXT 
Following the conclusion of the series on Saturday afternoon, the team will remain at home to host Luther College in a four-game set starting with next Friday's doubleheader at 3:30 p.m.