STORM LAKE, Iowa - The Hamline baseball team (2-2) dropped to .500 so far on the season with a pair of losses to Buena Vista (2-3) on Saturday afternoon. The Beavers scored four runs in the middle of the first game to get a 7-5 victory and scored in six different innings in game two to get a 10-5 win in the finale.
The Pipers will get to play again relatively soon, taking on St. Olaf in a non-conference game at U.S. Bank Stadium on Tuesday.
Sophomore
Logan Tollefson and junior
Cullen Buck led HU at the plate, each recording four hits between the two games.
GAME 1: BUENA VISTA 7, HAMLINE 5
Despite outhitting the Beavers 11-8 in game one, BVU would find a way to overcome six defensive errors to claim the first game win.
The Pipers wasted no time in scoring, getting two runs across in the top of the first inning. Buck, who went 3-5 in the game, started the inning with a single and would later score on a sacrifice fly from senior
Zack Langton. Langton would also score in the inning, driven in by a single from teammate
Ian Sandbo.
The Beavers answered in the bottom on the inning, using a walk and two hits to tie it up 2-2 after one complete.
In the second, first year
Braeden Bourne hit his first career home run as a Piper, putting HU ahead 3-2. This would be one of his two hits throughout the game.
Buena Vista hit a home run of their own in the bottom of the third tying the game back up, this time at three apiece. The Beavers would tack on two runs in each of the fifth and the sixth innings to take over the lead, ahead 7-3 after six innings.
In the seventh, Hamline would get two of those runs back, with Tollefson scoring when Bourne singled to right field and first year
Tyler Johnson scoring on a single from first year
Mac Enlow. This would make it 7-5 with two more at-bats to go in the game.
First year
Matt Rusch started the eighth with a single and Buck reached in the ninth, but HU was not able to score leaving the final at 7-5.
Junior
Will Tzavaras started on the mound for the Pipers, going the first four innings. He gave up three runs on three hits while striking out four BVU batters. First year
Elijah Erickson and junior
Taylor Just each provided scoreless innings in relief for the Pipers. Sophmore
Jake Millard would take the loss, pitching an inning and giving up four runs.
GAME 2: BUENA VISTA 10, HAMLINE 5
Game two featured quite a bit of offense as the team's combined for 22 hits throughout the game. Tollefson had three of Hamline's 10 hits, driving in a pair of runs, and
Dylan Barganz and Langton each added two hits apiece as well.
First year
Xavier Bembnister started on the mound for the Pipers, going the first 2.2 innings, eventually taking the loss after allowing six runs on seven hits. First year
Braden Schneider came in in relief, pitching the final 5.1 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits.
The Pipers once again scored in the first inning, as
Colton Peters singled, advanced to second on a walk from Langton, and scored when Tollefson doubled to right center. The Beavers retaliated in the bottom of the inning, using a homer to tie it up. BVU would add another run in the second to take a 2-1 lead.
Buena Vista really broke the game open in the third inning, using four hits, two walks, and a hit-by-pitch to score four runs and extend their lead to 6-1.
The teams traded runs in both the fourth and the fifth innings. Tolllefson played a big role in those runs for HU, scoring in the fourth and driving in the run in the fifth. As the sixth and seventh innings were scoreless, the opponents headed into the final two innings with the score at 8-3.
The Pipers got a rally going in the eighth, using a bases loaded walk from Rusch to score one run and a single from Buck got another runner in. This would be all they would get from the inning, however, leaving the bases loaded.
The Beavers scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to once again give themselves some more breathing room. They retired the Pipers in the ninth, allowing no more runs to cross, to secure the 10-5 win and the series sweep.
