STORM LAKE, Iowa (Feb. 3, 2026) - The Buena Vista baseball team, the defending American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) regular season and tournament champions, have been picked to finish second in the 2026 A-R-C Preseason Baseball Coaches poll as announced by the league office on Tuesday afternoon.

The Beavers are coming off a 2025 campaign in which it finished 33-12 overall  (18-6 A-R-C). The team would capture the regular season crown in dramatic fashion on the final day of the regular season by completing a three-game series sweep at home over Coe College, including a go-ahead grand slam during the seventh inning of the winner-take-all third game.

The Kohawks, who would settle for second place in last year's standings, received all eight possible first-place votes and tallied 64 points to be tabbed as the preseason favorites to take home this year's title. BVU claimed the final first-place vote and finished with 57 points. Wartburg landed 41 total points and comes in behind Buena Vista in third.

BVU will have to replace four starting position players and its top-two arms in the starting rotation, but does have a number of experienced players back to lean on. Among that group on the offensive side is the reigning Rookie of the Year in Kaden Struck, who was second on the team as a freshman with a .361 batting average, 55 hits, four triples, 42 RBI and 37 runs scored. 

On the mound,  the Beavers have six different pitchers coming back that tossed over 10 innings overall for a staff that punched out nearly 400 hitters and pitched nearly 400 total innings in 2025.

Buena Vista begins its A-R-C schedule by hosting the University of Dubuque at home for a three-game weekend series on Mar. 20-21. A week later on Mar. 27-28, the team will host Loras College for three more games before a single nine-inning game against Central College on Mar. 31.

The first conference road test comes during a three-game series at Luther College on Apr. 3-4. The final home games will be a mid-week doubleheader against Nebraska Wesleyan on Apr. 14. The regular season concludes for the Beavers on the road at Simpson College in a three-game series on May 1-2.

This year's A-R-C Tournament will again be played at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The top-six teams from the final regular season standings will qualify.