STORM LAKE, Iowa (Apr. 2 8, 2026) - The Buena Vista softball team hosted Central College on Tuesday afternoon for an American Rivers Conference doubleheader, and the two teams played a pair of wild games with the Dutch rallying to win 22-16 in the opener before pulling away for a 13-0 win in five innings of game two.
Central was tossing a perfect game in game one through the first three innings before it switched pitchers at the start of the fourth inning, and that's when freshman Maddy Raveling drew a leadoff walk to begin what proved to be a huge rally. She came around to score the team's first run on an RBI double by junior Jillian Garcia. BVU scored 15 runs in the frame with six of them coming on bases loaded walks and led 15-7 going to the fifth.
After retiring the leadoff batter in the fifth, the Beavers were just two outs away from winning the game. The Dutch, however, got back-to-back singles, and then scored a run on a double steal. From there, Central went on to score seven total runs in the inning to get within 15-14. The Dutch then tacked on four runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. BVU got a solo home run from freshman Hanna Merron in the sixth for its only other run.
Central out-hit the Beavers, 16-6, in the game, and the two sides combined for 24 walks. In all, the game took nearly three-and-a-half hours to complete.
Merron finished 2-for-3 with a double, home run and five RBI. Freshman Karlee Noe was 2-for-4 with a walk, one RBI and two runs scored. Emerson Coziahr suffered the loss in relief after allowing five runs and just two hits in her one inning of work.
