PELLA, Iowa (Apr. 7, 2026) - The Buena Vista baseball team rallied from a pair of deficits in the opener of its American Rivers Conference road doubleheader at Central College on Tuesday afternoon and won 7-2, but the Dutch would pull away late in the nightcap to earn the split with a 7-2 victory.

Central led 3-0 going to the fifth inning of game one before the Beavers manufactured three runs of its own to pull even at 3-3. Junior Brandon Jenkins and sophomore Cooper Sobeck each came through with RBI doubles while sophomore Jack Schmaltz tied it up with an RBI single back up the middle. Sobeck finished 3-for-5 in the game with a pair of doubles and two runs scored and has hit safely in 12 of the last 13 games overall.

The Dutch regained the lead with a run in the sixth and stayed in front until the eighth when BVU again rallied with three runs to take a 6-4 lead. Sophomore Jack Dahlager came on to pinch hit and put the team back in front with a two-run single through the right side. Later in the inning, junior Jake Eddie tacked on a sacrifice  fly that made it 6-4. Then in the top of the ninth,the Beavers tallied a big insurance run on an RBI single from freshman Mason Hoberman.

Central threatened in the bottom of the ninth by plating two runs to get as close as 7-6, but BVU sophomore Dylan Johnson induced a foul out to end the game with the tying run at second base and the winning run at first en route to his first save of the year.

Junior Koleson Evans came on in relief to earn the win. The hard throwing righthander pitched 2.0 innings, allowed just one run unearned runs and two hits while striking out three and didn't walk a batter. Johnson then went the final two innings, scattered three hits and walked two. Carson Brachtel made the start and struck out a career-high five over his 3.0 innings. The lefthander was charged with an unearned run and only two hits.

The Dutch (12-14, 7-5 A-R-C) built a 3-0 lead in the third and carried that same score into the sixth when BVU got on the board and pulled within a run after a two-run home run off the bat of sophomore Kaden Struck. It was his third home run of the year, and he has now hit safely in six straight games. Central got a run back in the bottom half and then added three more in the eighth to break things open en route to the series win after holding off the Beavers 8-5 last week in Storm Lake.

Eddie was 2-for-4 at the plate and was the only multi-hit player in the game for BVU which tallied only seven hits overall. Dahlager and Schmaltz both doubled in the game and were one of five players to finish with one hit.

Senior Christian Kaanapu got the start and pitched 2.2 innings, allowing three runs and six hits while striking out two, but suffered the loss and is now 1-1 on the year. Preston Crees made his collegiate debut and came on in relief to pitch 4.2 innings while senior Logan Lape-Brinkman got the final two outs, including one strikeout.

Buena Vista is now 6-20 on the year (2-10 A-R-C) and returns home to host Coe College in a three-game weekend series this Friday and Saturday (Apr. 10-11). First pitch for the opener is set for Friday evening at 6 p.m.