Bulldogs take two of three from Penguins for series win
Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 02:19 EST
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The Cardinals came through in the 11th inning to steal away a 3-2 win over the Butler baseball team on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs (4-12) jumped on the scoreboard early. Sophomore Jason Jamerson led off the second with a single, followed by junior Alex Montagano’s walk, to set up freshman Michael Letzter’s liner up the middle to bring home Jamerson and give the team a 1-0 advantage. The men’s tennis team continued its hot streak Wednesday, defeating host Dayton 5-2 to pick up its sixth consecutive win.
The team hosts Indiana State on Friday at 3 p.m. The baseball team won its fourth in the last five games after defeating visiting IPFW 5-4 in 10 innings on Tuesday.
Sophomore Jason Jamerson’s clutch single scored senior Kyle McLaughlin from second base.
Two innings prior, Butler (4-11) had rallied back from a 4-2 deficit. McLaughlin led off the inning by reaching on a fielding error. The men’s tennis team (6-9) won its matches on Friday over visiting locals IPFW 6-1 and IUPUI 5-2.
On the women’s side, the Bulldogs (7-7) got back to .500 with a 5-2 win over host Evansville on Friday.
Butler (3-11, 2-1) took full advantage of its first conference series against visiting Youngstown State, taking the first two games of the three-game series, before losing in the finale.
In the opener on Friday, it took all nine innings for the Bulldogs’ offense to come alive. Senior Ryan Neat got things going in the second with his team-leading second home run of the season to tie the game at one. Then in the third, senior Joe Pauley worked himself into a rundown to score junior Rick Betsch at third to give Butler the lead at 2-1.
The Penguins would tie things up in the sixth and eventually went up 4-2 in the seventh. The Bulldogs came within one in their half of the inning after freshman Kevin Rotherham scored on a fielding error.
Senior Kyle McLaughlin scored in the eighth after an RBI double by senior Nate Hart tied the game at four a piece. The ninth inning began beautifully for Butler, with two walks and a fielding error to load the bases with no outs. Freshman Grant Fillipitch stepped up and knocked a single to right to send in the winning run.
The Bulldogs continued that momentum into the following day, taking game one of the doubleheader 4-1.
Junior Ryan Kruszka (1-2) had a stellar performance on the mound for Butler, giving up just three hits and one earned run, while also striking out six in seven innings of work.
The Bulldogs led 3-0 through four innings and gave up only one run in the sixth, which they quickly earned back in their half of the inning. Pauley finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs scored and sophomore Jason Jamerson also added two hits of his own, and each picked up an RBI.
The final game belonged to the Penguins, however, as Butler was able to produce just one run on eight hits, including two each from Neat and freshman Luke Duncan.
Senior Bryan Bokowy (0-4) allowed just four hits in 7 1/3 innings and struck out seven.
The Bulldogs return to action March 25 when they host IPFW at 3 p.m.