By:Andrew Mild
After a rough start to their 2022 season, the Butler Bulldogs baseball team looked to bounce back in the Jackson State University tournament.
Butler went on to win all three games over the weekend collecting two one-run wins over the host team and one win over Prairie View A&M with a score of 10-1.
The undefeated weekend put Butler back at .500 for the season with a record of 3-3 through their first six games of the season.
The story for the ‘Dawgs was that their pitching was more aggressive in the zone this weekend than last weekend against Murray State. In the series against the Racers the Bulldogs issued 24 walks in 24 innings. They cut that number down to just eight walks in 27 innings.
Because of the pitching staff being more aggressive and applying pressure to the opposing batters, Butler only allowed five earned runs which showed so much more improvement than the abysmal 45 earned runs last week.
Butler’s pitching staff was led by transfer starting pitcher Aaron Barokas. Barokas took the ball in the final game and pitched six scoreless frames while allowing just two hits and one walk. Barokas also sat down seven Jackson State hitters on strikes. This start comes a week after Barokas allowed six earned runs without recording an out.
The hitting was led by another transfer, shortstop Travis Holt. This weekend Holt went 7-13 while getting multi-hits in each game. He also swiped two more bags for the Bulldogs to get him to five stolen bases on the young season. His .478 average and five stolen bases currently lead the Big East in those categories.
Butler will play again on Tuesday against Northern Kentucky who have started the season 1-5. Bulldog Park will see it’s first game on Wednesday against Manchester University for the 2022 home opener. Finally over the weekend Butler will head down to Jacksonville,Florida to play a three game set against Jacksonville University and a two game set against North Florida.
