Baseball | 3/21/2025 9:42:00 PM

Box Score WEST LIBERTY, Iowa (Mar. 21, 2025) - Senior Morgan Smith tossed a complete-game shutout while freshman Kaden Struck doubled and drove in a pair as the Buena Vista baseball team began American Rivers Conference play on Friday evening with a 4-0 victory over Luther College in a game played at West Liberty High School due to unplayable field conditions in both Storm Lake and Decorah.

Buena Vista broke the scoreless tie in the third inning with a 2-run double from Struck that made it 2-0 before adding single runs in the fifth and seventh frames, respectively. Drew Taylor doubled home a run in the fifth and Evan Taylor scored in the seventh when Struck reached on a fielding error by the Luther third baseman. The game was halted briefly prior to the start of the ninth inning due to heavy rain and wind but Smith came back out following the delay and managed to work around a two-out jam by recording his second punch out of the inning and ninth of the game to end things.

Struck finished 2-for-3 with a double, walk and two runs driven in. Drew Taylor was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while senior Evan Taylor and junior Connor Zegar both chimed in with two hits. Senior Joel Garcia registered his 199th career base knock and was 1-for-4 with a run scored.

Smith, meanwhile, chalked up his fifth career complete-game effort and his 18th career victory which moves him into a tie for fourth all-time. His nine innings pitched, however, broke the program's all-time mark of 259.0 set by Trevor Miller (1993-96). Smith now has 264.1 and counting for his career His nine strikeouts in the game left him one shy of equaling his season-high and extends his program all-time record to 266.

Garren Heinert had two hits for the Norse (4-10, 0-1 A-R-C) which finished with only four overall.

Buena Vista improves to 9-4 on the year (1-0 A-R-C) and will look to win the series over the Norse on Saturday as the two team's play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m