For the second straight week, the Buena Vista baseball team held Coe to only two total runs, and the Beavers picked up a big doubleheader sweep of the Kohawks on Tuesday afternoon by scores of 7-1 and 6-1. The victories complete the season sweep of the Kohawks.
Game one was tied 1-1 heading to the home half of the sixth when the Beavers plated six runs on four hits. Junior Jeremy Lambert (Alta, Iowa/Alta) came on to pinch hit with the bases loaded, and the first pitch he saw hits him on the elbow to push across the go-ahead run. Ryan Titman (Boone, Iowa/Boone) and Weston Foxx (Elkhorn, Neb./Elkhorn) followed with run-scoring singles before Joe Paletta (Omaha, Neb./Millard South) scorched a bases-clearing, three-run double for the final runs.
Senior Brennan Holm (Fairmont, Minn./South Central), who came on in relief to pitch the final three innings, did not allow a single base runner, to pick up his second win of the year. Freshman Tyson Valentine (Ankeny, Iowa/Ankeny) got the start and allowed just three hits and one run through four innings.
Brandon Wessels (Palmer, Iowa/Manson NW Webster) turned in a game-high three hits, to go along with one RBI and a run scored to help lead the Beavers, who out-hit the Kohawks 11-3. Paletta, along with Nick Schlecht (Omaha, Neb./Skutt) and Jesse Munsterman (St. Peter, Minn./St. Peter), followed with two hits each.
The win secured BVU its first winning series in conference play for the year.
The bats continued to come through with runners on in game two, as BVU plated two runs in both the second and third innings, while adding two more in the fifth.
Foxx doubled home the first two runs in the second before Wessels added an RBI double and Alex Davis (Webster City, Iowa/Webster City) a sacrifice fly in the third for a 4-0 lead.
Coe got on the board with its only run in the fifth before the Beavers came right back in the bottom half with a run scoring on a wild pitch followed by Davis' second sacrifice fly of the contest.
BVU again out-hit the Kohawks, 12-4.
Paletta, who doubled twice in the contest, was one of four players with two hits. BVU's three thru six hitters combined to go 7-for-15 in the contest.
Freshman Kendall Hazel (Sergeant Bluff, Iowa/S-B-L) got the start on the hill for BVU and improves to 3-2 on the year after allowing just the one run on three hits through seven innings, while striking out four.
Lucas Hadaway (Sheldahl, Iowa/North Polk) came on to strikeout the side in the eighth before Jake Bjorkgren (Urbandale, Iowa/Urbandale) came on in the ninth and erased a one-out hit by completing the 1-6-3 double play to end it.
Buena Vista is now 9-4 over its last 13 games and reaches 20 wins (20-16, 12-12 IIAC) for the fifth straight season. The team wraps up the regular season this Friday and Saturday at Loras College for a four-game weekend series. Friday's game one is scheduled to begin at 3:30pm.