Box Score

Senior southpaw Jeff Schank stymied the bats of Alcorn State Friday afternoon, throwing seven shutout innings and striking out 12 as the Bulldogs took a 3-2 win in Lorman, Miss. Butler improves to 4-1 on the young season with the win, which was the opener in a weekend series between the two teams.

Schank allowed only one hit to go along with three walks in his seven innings of work.

Butler's offense staked Schank to an early lead as Chris Maranto homered to left field to lead off the game. That 1-0 lead carried through until the sixth inning when the Bulldogs would push across another run.

With one out, the Bulldogs put together back-to-back singles but Garrett Christman was thrown out trying to advance to third. With Jordan Lucio on second and two outs, Michael Hartnagel hit a line drive back to the pitcher, who was able to corral the ball and was credited with a throwing error that allowed Hartnagel to reach and Lucio to score.

The Bulldogs added an insurance run in the ninth as Hartnagel led off the inning with a single and was sacrificed to second. He scored on a two-out single by Michael Diviesti to give Butler a 3-0 lead.

Alcorn State would not go quietly in the bottom of the ninth. The Bulldogs used three pitchers in the inning with Chris Myjak getting the final out for his second save of the season.

Hartnagel had two of the Bulldogs' seven hits.

Friday's game started a four-game series with Alcorn State. A doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday.