Simpson offense stalls against Buena Vista

INDIANOLA, Iowa – Offense proved hard to come by for the Simpson baseball team on Saturday as Buena Vista took the first two games of the four-game set, 4-0 and 2-1 in 10 innings.

Tyler Craig came within inches of giving Simpson the lead in the 10th inning of game two, but his shot off Brennan Holm hooked foul and late-inning replacement Jake Daniels hit a walk-off single in the home half to give Buena Vista the win.

A venue change allowed Buena Vista to be represented as the home team on the scoreboard despite playing on Simpson's field. The games were originally scheduled to be played at Buena Vista, but were moved to Indianola on account of unplayable field conditions in Storm Lake.

The game two loss spoiled a great performance by starter Jose Rodriguez (1-4), who scattered 10 hits in 9-plus innings of work.

Rodriguez – who struck out six in the longest outing of his career – got the job done with his glove as well. With the potential go-ahead run on second and one out in the eighth, Rodriguez fielded a sharply hit ground ball and chased the lead runner down for the second out of the inning.

Holm (1-2) allowed just one hit in four innings of relief work for Buena Vista.

Blake Heitmeier went 3-for-3 and drove in the only run via a bases-loaded walk for the Storm (8-17, 4-12 Iowa Conference), who haven't had much luck in close games this season.

Of Simpson's 17 losses, eight have been by one run.

The Beavers (14-12, 6-8) rode the arm of Jon Ringblom and the bat of Neil Eddie to win game one.

Eddie drove in four runs and Ringblom (4-1) struck out eight in six innings of work.

Eddie doubled in a the game's first run in the second, brought in another run on a safety-squeeze in the fourth and added some insurance with a two-run single in the sixth.

Brett Crable had three hits to lead the Storm and Gage Reis (2-2) threw well in the complete-game loss.

Simpson and Buena Vista conclude their four-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.