The Bulldogs took the trip to New Orleans this past weekend to take part in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Baseball Classic. Originally, three games were scheduled against Rutgers, Chicago State, and University of New Orleans. However, the match against Chicago State was cancelled due to poor weather.
Game 1 – Rutgers: 3 Butler: 2
The first game of the weekend was played against Rutgers Friday afternoon. Butler got off to a hot start in the opening inning when Zach Jarosz singled to center. He’d be brought in later in the inning on a Harrison Freed RBI single down the right field line.
Following some aggressive base running, the Bulldogs would tally another run. On a 2-4-3 putout, Freed was tagged at first but Senior Kyle Smith would reach home and extend Butler’s lead to 2.
Sophomore Ryan Pepiot started his second game of the season by throwing 5.2 innings and kept Rutgers off the board by recording 9 strikeouts. In his time on the mound, he only allowed 2 hits to the Scarlet Knights.
Right-hander Quentin Miller would take over for Pepiot, but would give up Rutgers’s first run of the ballgame on a wild pitch in the seventh inning. Jack Pilcher would take the mound in relief, attempting to make a four out save.
Things fell apart for the Bulldogs in the bottom half of the ninth, when a single and a couple of wild pitches allowed Rutgers to get runners in scoring position. Redshirt Freshman Tim Dezzi would hit a walk off 2RBI single to left and gave Rutgers the win 3-2.
Butler finished the game with 5 hits, 4 of them coming from Jarosz (2/5, 1R) and Freed (2/4, 1RBI).
Game 3 – New Orleans: 2 Butler: 1
The Bulldogs waited until Sunday to play their next game following the Chicago State cancellation on Saturday. It gave them some time to regroup and prepare for their matchup against New Orleans.
New Orleans would start the game by earning a run in the first inning. Luther Woullard hit a single through the left side of the infield and recorded the games only RBI, giving the Privateers a 1-0 lead early on.
Butler would tie the game up in the third. With one out in the inning, sophomore shortstop Maison Stites singled, and would later come around to score on a defensive error.
The first five batters in the lineup for Butler would each finish with one hit in the ball game. The lone player with two was catcher Zach Parker, contributing to the Bulldogs total of eight against New Orleans.
Effective pitching from each team kept both offenses at bay for nearly the entire game. Right-hander Connor Schultz started the game for the Bulldogs and stayed in for 6.1 innings, which included four strikeouts.
After Kevin Napoleon came on in relief, the loss ultimately fell in the hands of Jack Myers. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, a wild pitch got passed Parker, bringing in the game winning run for New Orleans.
Butler Baseball falls to 2-3 this season with the loss.
