Buena Vista scored four times in the seventh inning and overcame a 5-0 first inning deficit to win the Central Regional championship with a thrilling 7-6 victory over Carthage on Saturday afternoon at Jack Horenberger Field in Bloomington, Ill. The win moves BVU into the 2011 NCAA Division III College World Series which begins next Friday in Appleton, Wis.

Hoffman got the seventh-inning rally started for BVU with a lead-off double into the gap in left center. After Kevin Kloewer walked, Ryan Scheetz singled in a run to left center. Joe Paletta then executed a sacrifice bunt to move runners up to second and third with one out.  After a shallow fly out to left from Compton, Dylan Colo, facing a 1-2 pitch, pushed a soft single into right center field and advanced to second on the throw, scoring two and tying the game at 6-6.

Following a wild pitch that moved Colo to third, Tyler Case struck out swinging, but the Red Men catcher was unable to come up with the ball cleanly. The catcher was sent out onto the grass in front of the plate, but failed to get the ball thrown to first and Colo raced home to give BVU a 7-6 advantage.

James Stone, who came on in relief to pitch the final two innings, worked around a two-out walk and base hit in the ninth to get the final hitter to ground out to Scheetz at first to end it.

Luke Probasco, who was named the MVP of the All-Tournament team, came on in relief with one out in the first inning to pick up his ninth win of the year. After the first batter he saw sent a blistering ground ball past Yossi at third for a 5-0 lead, he settled in and retired 13 straight batters, while giving the Beavers 6.2 innings, allowing just one run on three hits, while striking out three.

BVU cut into the Red Men lead with a run in its half of the first before adding single runs in both the third and fourth innings to get within 5-3. Carthage would extend the advantage to 6-3 with a run in the seventh before the dramatic comeback in the bottom of the frame.

Scheetz finished 3-for-5 to lead the Beavers at the plate, while Case and Brad Blum each added two.

BVU was forced into the elimination championship game after Carthage used a big five-run eighth inning to win 12-7 in the opener.

Buena Vista improves to 32-16 overall, while tying a school record for wins in a season set last year. The team hadn't made it past regional play since qualifying to the NAIA World Series in 1968. The Beavers also become the Iowa Conference's first team to advance since Wartburg did so back in 2005.

BVU will open play in the World Series against UW-Whitewater at 4:30pm.