WEST LIBERTY, Iowa (Mar. 22, 2025) - The Buena Vista baseball team has begun American Rivers Conference play with a three-game series sweep over Luther College by sweeping the doubleheader between the two teams on Saturday afternoon by scores of 6-5 (10 inn.) and 7-3 (7 inn.).

Buena Vista held a 2-0 lead in the opener heading to the eighth inning before the Norse took its first lead of the series after Mark Prince launched a grand slam off of senior Zach Pleggenkuhle, who had come on to relive senior starter Mark Eddie earlier in the inning. Freshman Kaden Struck got one run back for the Beavers in the bottom of the inning with an RBI groundout to make it 4-3 heading to the ninth. 

Junior Connor Zegar led off the bottom of the ninth for BVU with a walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Jake Eddie and then reached third on a wild pitch. After a popup to first base for the second out of the inning, senior Tegan Bock walked to put runners at the corners with two outs. With senior Joel Garcia at the plate, Bock took off for second and on the throw down, Zegar broke for home and slid in safely to tie the score at 4-4. Garcia later walked but then the Norse got out of the jam by getting a force out at second to force extra innings.

Luther regained the lead in the top of the 10th with a solo home run before the Beavers again rallied in the bottom half with two outs and the bases empty. Jacob Eversole got things started with a walk, followed by singles by Zegar and Eddie to load the bases. Freshman Cooper Sobeck came through with one of the biggest hits of his young career by doubling to the gap in left center field to score Eversole while Zegar slid in just under the tag for the walk-off victory.

Zegar finished 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored to help lead the way for the Beavers while senior Drew Taylor doubled twice, walked once and scored a run. Garcia finished 1-for-4 with a run scored, and that base hit in the fifth inning made him the sixth player in program history to reach 200 in a career.

Mark Eddie went 7.0 strong innings for the Beavers on the hill, allowing only one run and five hits while striking out nine and walking two. Pleggenkuhle came on and struck out five over his 3.0 innings of relief and scattered four hits.

Luther (4-12, 0-3 A-R-C) got on the board first in game two with a sacrifice fly in the second inning but the lead didn't last long as the Beavers came right back in the bottom half with a two-run double from Bock to take a 2-1 lead. The Norse regained the lead at 3-2 with two runs in the fifth inning, but BVU again responded in the bottom half with four runs, including a go-ahead 2-run double from Struck that made it 5-3.

Sophomore Jake Eddie also doubled in the game and finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Drew Taylor also chipped in with two hits and scored a run.

Sophomore Ean McDaniel worked out of jam in the seventh inning after the first two batters reached to earn his first complete game of the year. He got a 6-4-3 ground out followed by a game-ending groundout to Eddie at second base to close the book on the series sweep. The righthander scattered eight hits over the seven innings, allowed three runs and struck out one.

Buena Vista improves to 11-4 overall (3-0 A-R-C) and is scheduled to host Wartburg College (8-5, 2-1 A-R-C) on Tuesday, Mar. 25, at 6 p.m.