April 2, 2023 – Despite surrendering 27 total runs on Sunday afternoon, the Loras College baseball team earned a split with Buena Vista University to hand the visitors their first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) loss of the season.

The Duhawks (13-9, 4-4 A-R-C) were downed 13-7 in the first game on Sunday to fall behind 2-0 in the weekend series, but exploded for 17 runs in the final game to top the Beavers (15-5, 6-1 A-R-C) by a final of 17-14.

BVU 13, Loras 7
The first game of Sunday's doubleheader featured multiple momentum shifts as the Duhawks got ahead early with a two-run first inning. After a solo homerun for the Beavers in the second inning, sophomore Max McCallum answered the call with a two-run homer of his own to put the Duhawks ahead 4-1 in the bottom half.

Even with those crooked numbers on the board, Loras couldn't pull away as the sides traded single runs in the third inning. Loras' starting pitcher Max Vaisvila was pretty strong through the first three innings, but it was in the fourth inning where he started to fade.

While the freshman did induce a double play in the inning, three hits helped plate two Beaver runs that cut the Loras lead to one. Vaisvila went back out for the fifth and allowed three more hits, including another home run and a triple that helped the Beavers take a 7-5 lead. The Beavers weren't done as they plated two more in the sixth and added four runs in the eighth to finish with 13 runs on 17 hits.

McCallum was the big swinger in game one for the Duhawks as he went 2-for-3 with a home run and double to account for three RBIs and score two runs of his own while drawing a pair of walks.

Loras 17, BVU 13
Sunday's second game was a back-and-forth slugfest as the game saw a total of 32 hits, 31 runs, and 15 extra-base hits. The writing was on the wall for this one after just one pitch as BVU's Joel Garcia smacked a solo home run to left field on the first pitch he saw from Duhawk starter Ryan Wohlers.

Garcia's homer was part of a nine-run first inning as the Beavers tallied four in their half before Loras tacked on five in the bottom half on just one hit, which came in the form of a three-RBI triple from senior Nick DiBenedetto.

With loads of offense spread throughout this one, Loras took a lead in the fourth as senior Tyler Pransky belted a three-run homer to make it 12-7 in favor of the Duhawks.

Buena Vista stormed back and tied things up at 13-13 in the seventh inning, but the Duhawks went back to work in the bottom half as another four-run frame was punctuated by another DiBenedetto home run, this one a two-run blast that gave Loras a 17-13 lead before the Duhawks held on for a 17-14 victory.

From the sixth and seventh spots in the batting order, DiBenedetto and Pransky each accounted for six RBIs and three hits while combining for five runs and three homers in a huge offensive showing for the Duhawks. Their efforts gave reliever Ethan Peters his second win of the season after he tossed 4.2 innings and allowed four earned runs.

Loras continues A-R-C play with a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 4, at the University of Dubuque, starting at 1 P.M.