INDIANOLA,Iowa (May 1, 2026) - After seeing Simpson College rally with three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning of game one to earn a 6-5 walk-off victory, the Buena Vista baseball team bounced back in a big way during game two of Friday's American Rivers Conference doubleheader to earn the split with a 10-5 victory in game two.
BVU carried a 5-4 advantage into the bottom of the ninth inning, but after retiring the first batter, the Storm loaded the bases with back-to-back walks followed by a hit-by-pitch. Tijmen Nagel, who entered the at-bat 0-for-4 on the day, then delivered the game-winning two-run single down the left field line to bring the Storm all the way back.
Buena Vista got RBI singles from sophomores
Kaden Struck and
Jack Schmaltz in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. That's how things stood until Simpson hit a solo home run in the fourth to cut the lead in half. BVU got that run right back in the fifth on a
Dylan Johnson RBI single back up the middle that made it 3-1. The Storm later tied the game at 3-3 with a two-run single in the fifth before the Beavers turned right around and got the lead back at 5-3 with a two-run double from freshman
Benjamin Byington. Simpson made it 5-4 after pushing across one run in the seventh before its ninth inning rally.
Byington was 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles, drove in two and scored once, Johnson finished 2-for-3 to go along with a pair of walks, one RBI and freshmanÂ
Grant Preuss went 2-for-3 with a double, walk and one run scored. As a team, the Beavers tallied nine hits and also stranded nine runners on base. Simpson had seven hits in the game and stranded five.
Drew Camman suffered the loss in relief for the Beavers. The righthander was charged with two runs and one hit and also walked two over 2.0 innings. Freshman
Dan Meis got the start and went a career-high 6.1 innings, allowed four runs and six hits while striking out five and walking two.
The Beavers again jumped out to the early lead in game two by scoring four times in the top of the first inning. Junior
Jake Eddie drove in the first run with an RBI single followed by a sacrifice fly from Schmaltz. Preuss continued his hot bat with a two-run double to the gap in left center that made it 4-0. Simpson got on the board in the fourth with a solo home run before adding a second run in the sixth to pull within 4-2.
Struck had a two-run single while Johnson drove in another with a single as BVU pushed the lead up to 7-2 with a three-run seventh. The Beavers then tacked on three more in the eighth to extend the margin to 10-2.
Junior
Ean McDaniel was vying for a complete-game effort after going back out to the mound to begin the ninth but would be replaced by freshman
Kalab Kuhl after the Storm (22-16, 13-10 A-R-C) loaded the bases with no outs. Simpson would get a pair of bases loaded walks to make it 10-4 before BVU again made a pitching change. Eddie would come in from shortstop to take over for Kuhl and after allowing a sacrifice fly to the first batter and a walk to the second that reloaded the bases, he would get a force out at home and a strikeout to end the game.
Eddie led the way at the plate by going 3-for-5 with a double, RBIÂ and two runs scored. Struck went 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored while Johnson added two hits, an RBI and one run scored. Overall, the Beavers chalked up 11 hits overall and had five stolen bases.
McDaniel was charged with five runs and eight hits over his 8.0+ innings of work and improved to 3-6 on the year. He did walk five and struck out four.
Buena Vista is now 10-27 overall (6-17 A-R-C) and will close out the season tomorrow afternoon as it goes after the series victory. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
