The Buena Vista baseball team finally had a chance to get its 2019 season underway on Friday by playing an afternoon doubleheader at 17th-ranked Webster University, but the Gorlocks handed the Beavers a pair of heartbreaking defeats to begin the year, winning in walk-off fashion in both games, 4-1 (10 inn.) and 3-2.
Buena Vista got on the board first in both contests, but Webster, which is coming off a school-record 38 wins from a year ago, rallied in the later innings of both to tie things up and then to win. In the opener, BVU got on the board in the top of the third inning when a failed pick-off attempt with runners at second and third went wild to second, allowing Ryley McGregor to score and give the Beavers a 1-0 lead.
Eagan Bonde was cruising right along on the mound for BVU, allowing just three hits until the Gorlocks tied things up on a solo home run in the fifth. Bonde allowed just that one run and four hits in his five innings of work.
Gage Smart came on in relief and was just as efficient, striking out five and walking three without allowing a hit over three innings.
The Beavers couldn't come up with a big hit late as they had runners at first and second with just one out in the eighth inning, but left both runners stranded. For the game, the team left eight runners on base.
Bryce Rheault made his collegiate debut on the mound to start the ninth and worked around a wild pitch and passed ball in the ninth to force extra innings. Webster, which has six starters back from last year's 38-10 squad that advanced to its eighth NCAA Tournament in nine years, then got the lead-off man on in the 10th before a sacrifice bunt and a hit batter put two runners on, and the Gorlocks finished things off with a walk-off three-run home run over the fence in right center.
Tyler Tennyson was one of five different players to record one hit for BVU, as his double was the team's only extra-base knock.
Sophomore Coleman Roberts, who had one hit in the opener, followed up with a 2-for-4 performance at the dish in game two, including a run-scoring double. He had a pair of RBI over the first three innings as the Beavers built a 2-0 lead.
That's how things stood until the bottom of the fifth inning when Webster rallied with a big two-out, two-run double to tie things at 2-2. Neither team was able to push across another run until Webster (4-1) finished the day with a two-out, run-scoring single back up the middle in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 3-2 victory.
Tennyson made his first collegiate start on the bump for BVU and was strong, allowing just two base hits and striking out two in four innings. Eric LaRue worked the next four innings in relief before Nick Henrichs came on in the ninth.
Rheault also added two hits in the contest and scored both BVU runs as McGregor and Tyler Stoltze each added doubles.
Buena Vista is 0-2 overall and will travel to Topeka, Kan., on March 9-10 where it will play a pair of doubleheaders against Grinnell College. First pitch both days is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.