Buena Vista baseball rallies past Coe with walkoff win, clinches series

Brandon Jenkins lined a pitch into the gap in left-center in the bottom of the ninth, and Buena Vista turned a four-run deficit into a 6-5 walkoff win over Coe that clinched the series in Storm Lake. The comeback gave the Beavers a statement victory at the Buena Vista University/Storm Lake High School baseball field and handed Coe its first American Rivers Conference series loss of the season.

Buena Vista had trailed 5-1 after Coe used early power to build the lead. Ryan Thoreson opened with a solo home run in the first, then the Kohawks added to the margin with a three-run fourth inning that included an RBI single from Ryan Brosius and a two-run home run by Brent Yonkovic. Luke Schieltz later tacked on an RBI single in the sixth, but Buena Vista kept answering and stayed within reach long enough for the late rally to take shape.

The turning point came in the seventh. With two outs and the Beavers still chasing the game, Kaden Struck delivered a three-run triple to tie the score at 5-5 and flip the atmosphere in Storm Lake. Buena Vista was not waiting on one lucky swing. The Beavers were piecing together pressure inning by inning, and Struck’s hit made the final stretch feel inevitable.

In the ninth, the winning sequence began with Benjamin Byington’s one-out single. A dropped third strike moved him into scoring position, setting up Jenkins for the finish. Jenkins drove the ball into left-center and Byington scored the winning run, sending the Beavers into a hard-earned celebration after 2 hours and 8 minutes of baseball before 80 spectators.

The result carried added weight because this was a series game with conference implications, not just a one-night surge. The matchup had been shifted because of rain concerns, with the doubleheader moved to Friday, April 10, and the rubber game following on Saturday, April 11. Buena Vista’s latest escape also fits a familiar pattern against Coe: in May 2025, the Beavers beat the Kohawks in a winner-take-all finale to secure the outright American Rivers Conference regular-season title. This time, another late comeback delivered another reminder that Buena Vista can handle pressure when the game is on the line.