STORM LAKE, Iowa (Apr. 17, 2024) - Playing its first game since moving back into the national rankings, the No. 21 Buena Vista University baseball team extended its current overall win streak to six games after defeating visiting Nebraska Wesleyan, 6-2, on Wednesday night in a game that was pushed back one day due to inclement weather.
The Prairie Wolves struck first and led 1-0 after an RBI single in the fourth from Carter Betts plated an unearned run. BVU didn't trail for long as it responded right back in the bottom half of the inning with two runs of its own. Fifth-year senior Grant Oseka tied things up by lifting a sacrifice fly into right field that scored fellow fifth-year senior Zack Beekmann from third and moved fifth-year senior Calvin Harris up to third. The sac fly was the team's 20th of the season which is tied for third-most in the program's single-season history.
Harris later came in to score after a balk which gave BVU its first lead at 2-1 as the team scored twice in the inning without recording a single base hit.
Freshman Brandon Jenkins lifted an RBI single out into left in the fifth that scored Evan Taylor and extending the Beaver lead to 3-1. Junior Joel Garcia, who finished 3-for-5, executed a perfect hit-and-run attempt by lacing a two-run single to right field highlighting a big three-run sixth inning for BVU. He now has a team-leading 47 hits on the year and pushes his average up to .409 which sits third in the A-R-C. Garcia later scored in the inning on a wild pitch that made it 6-1.
