The Buena Vista baseball team got its 2015 season underway in the desert on Sunday with a doubleheader against Cornell College, and the Beavers got off to a solid start with a sweep of the Rams by scores of 11-3 and 3-0, respectively.
BVU took a 2-0 lead with two runs in the second before scoring three runs in each of the next three innings.
Junior Neil Marshall, who tied the program's single-season hit mark with 70 last seaon, picked up right where he left off in 2014, with an RBI single for the team's first run of the year. Fellow junior Brandon Wessels, a preseason First Team All-American selection, followed up with a run-scoring single of his own for the 2-0 lead.
Wessels matched his brother, Bryce, with four hits in the contest, tripled home runs in both the fourth and fifth innings as the Beavers built an 11-0 lead.
Cornell scored twice in the fifth before adding a late run in the seventh.
Marshall, Bennett Mann as well as Eric Gurbacki tallied two hits each for Buena Vista which chalked up 18 overall.
Junior Kendall Hazel was solid on the hill for BVU, working six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on seven hits, while striking out six and walking none. Dalton Mason came on to pitch the seventh, surrendering a run on three hits, but stuck out two.
The Beavers jumped out to the early lead in the nightcap with Marshall scoring on an RBI single from junior Tanner Truesdell in the home half of the first. BVU then plated an unearned run in the third for a 2-0 lead before Truesdell again plated Marshall in the fifth for the game's final run.
The two teams combined for only seven hits in the contest.
Truesdell registered two of BVU's three hits in the contest with Marshall adding the third. Marshall also walked and added a sacrfice hit to go along with the team's lone stolen base.
Mann walked twice as the Beavers drew seven base-on-balls.
Justin Lange got the start and picked up the win for the Beavers, working six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, striking out seven and walking only one. Senior Lucas Hadaway, who moved into the team's closer role this season, notched a save in his first opportunity after pitching the seventh inning, allowing just one hit and striking out one.
For the day, BVU pitchers combined to strike out 15 batters and issuing only one walk over the 14 innings of work.
Buena Vista is now 2-0 on the year as the Rams drop to 1-3. BVU will head back onto the diamond in Tucson for a doubleheader against Bethany Lutheran on Monday, March 9, beginning at 6:00pm CT.