STORM LAKE, Iowa (March 28, 2026) - On a day where the windy conditions played a major factor throughout, the Buena Vista baseball team came up short in both games of its American Rivers Conference doubleheader to close out the weekend series with Loras College, falling 14-12 (12 inn.) and 4-2 (7 inn.), respectively.
Sustained winds throughout the day were blowing out towards left field between 30-35mph with occasional gusts over 40mph.
Loras jumped ahead 2-0 in the first inning by getting an RBI double and a run-scoring single and then added another RBI single in the second to lead 3-0. BVU got on the board in the bottom of the second with an RBI groundout, but the Duhawks then took advantage of the wind and belted back-to-back home runs in the third to extend the margin to 6-1.
BVU was aided by the wind in the bottom half when it got a two-run sacrifice fly deep to center field off the bat of sophomore Dylan Johnson. The ball was hit and caught just in front of the wall but the throw back in was into the wind which carried the cut-off man well out into the outfield, allowing sophomore Connor Duong to keep on running and scoring all the way from second.
Neither side was able to shut down the other side until the final innings as the Duhawks got two runs back in the fourth to make it an 8-4 game only to see the Beavers come right back in the bottom half and get them right back on an RBI double from Reid Jacob and an RBI groundout to third.
Loras hit its third home run of the game in the fifth that scored a pair and hit another in the sixth that made it 11-8. Sophomore Kaden Struck used the wind to his advantage in the home half with an opposite field home run that made it 11-9. The Duhawks took a 12-9 lead in the seventh before the Beavers clawed all the way back to pull even at 12-12.
BVU had chances to take its first lead of the series down the stretch, but couldn't come up with the big hit, and stranded a pair of runners on base in the ninth and 11th innings. Loras would break through in the 12th after a leadoff single that came around to score on the team's fifth home run of the game and made it 14-12. The Beavers got the tying run to the plate in the home half and only one out but a fly out and a strikeout ended the game.
Sophomore Cooper Sobeck continued his torrid stretch and finished 5-for-7 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored. Duong was 3-for-7 with an RBI and scored twice while junior Reid Jacob also had a career-high three hits and scored twice. Struck had two hits, scored three times and also drove in two, and Schmaltz was 2-for-4 with a pair of walks and one run scored.
The two teams combined for 26 runs and 35 hits with 16 of those going for extra-bases.
Sophomore lefthander Dylan Johnson made the start on the mound giving the Beavers their first-ever Dylan Johnson pitcher-catcher battery. He pitched 4.2 innings and allowed 10 runs (eight earned) and 10 hits but did strikeout seven. Freshman Dan Meis came on in relief and was charged with two runs and four hits over 3.1 innings while striking out five before junior Koleson Evans went the final four innings allowing the final two runs on just three hits while striking out a career-high eight without issuing a walk.
