INDIANAPOLIS – Butler baseball head coach Dave Schrage recently sat down with the sports information department to talk about his first season on campus. This Q&A session covers many topics including facility upgrades, alumni events, and overall season highlights.
 
SID: How did you connect with Butler baseball alumni during your first year at the helm?

Dave Schrage: Reaching out to former players is important so we hosted a few functions in order to connect with the guys. The largest gathering was the First Pitch Dinner which will happen again in late January or early February of 2018. Ron Coomer was our guest speaker last year, and we were really pleased with the turnout.

We also had three meetings at Scotty's Dawghouse. The first was just to allow the alums to meet the new coaching staff. The second meeting was to talk about recruiting and discuss our overall vision for the program. The third meeting covered the upcoming season.

We want to continue to host these events, and hopefully be able to increase the amount of gatherings in the near future. We don't have specifics squared away at this time, but our goal is to host an alumni gathering this year during homecoming.
 
SID: How did the 2017 Bulldogs reach out to the community?

DS: We handed out over 1,500 season tickets to youth baseball programs in the area so they could come out and watch us play. The kids were able to run onto the field and talk to some players in the dugout before the game. We also hosted a free coaches clinic for all the youth programs in the community.

We want to grow the Butler brand and have people come out to see a game. It's good caliber baseball and we really want to develop our fan base. It starts with our alums and with our local youth teams and it will hopefully spread to the people in Indianapolis.
 
SID: What goals did you set for the team heading into the 2017 season?

DS: Our goal heading into the season was just to get the kids to believe in themselves. We wanted them to have the mentality that they could win any game, and that took some work.

I remember a scrimmage against UIndy in the fall, and they took it to us. Our guys were very quiet in the dugout, very tentative on the field and just had a let's see what happens approach to the game. That was our baseline. We had a long talk after that game.

I told them if we want to be successful we have to be the aggressor, we can't sit back, we have to be more vocal, we have to be more energetic, we have to be more enthusiastic. Stop going into games hoping to win and develop the attitude that we are going to take it to teams to win games.

Two weeks later we played the Canadian junior team and won. We had a different attitude. I told the guys, let's compare the two games and they responded well. They got it. They saw the difference.

We had to make the game more fun. For some reason our guys were afraid to have a little fun. One example that comes to mind this year was our sniper rifle. It was made with water bottles and tape and other things laying around in the dugout. Whenever there was a big situation in a game someone grabbed the sniper rifle and if we got the guy out, they got to keep it, but if not they had to pass it on. It just gave the guys on the bench something to have fun with. We wanted the guys to loosen up, play more relaxed and to play with some more confidence.

The other thing we needed to turn around was our work ethic during practice and our dedication off the field. We had some heart to heart team meetings that got that turned around. It worked out well because when you win some games early the team starts believing and that's what happened with us.
 
SID: What are your coaching philosophies?

DS: I've always believed that pitching and defense will win you games, and will win championships. On the other hand, you have to hit the ball to win a conference tournament. The reason behind that is you have already seen the team you are facing, pitchers are tired, and the weather is warmer. Games are typically higher scoring during that time of the season.
 
SID: The 2017 team set a new school record for most strikeouts recorded in a single-season with 405. How were they able to reach that accomplishment?

DS: Our focus was to develop a throwing program for our pitching staff. Coach [Ben] Norton has a detailed program that uses a lot of gadgets, weighted balls, etc. Look at Jeff Schank as an example. He went from 91 innings and 59 strikeouts as a junior to 67 innings and 74 strikeouts in his senior year. His ERA dropped from 3.16 to 2.01. Last year he threw around 84-85 MPH. This year he was at 88-90 MPH.

The other key was staying healthy. I think we stayed healthy because of the throwing program and the weight program. I can't say enough about our strength and conditioning coach Scott Charland. He did a great job with our guys and it was reflective in our home run total, our increased velocity with our pitching and overall in staying healthy.
 
SID: How was the senior leadership on the 2017 team?

DS: The senior class did a really good job. This is the class we are going to look back on and say you guys started the turnaround. That group took personal responsibility to that goal. They wanted to leave a legacy of a winning season and they were the ones that turned it around. I can't thank them enough for what they did.
 
SID: The Bulldogs won 31 games in 2017 compared to just 14 in 2016. What else helped this team find success?

DS: We went from winning four games on the road to winning 16. That was an attitude, an overall belief that we had. We focused on ourselves and not on who we were playing. Our motto was to respect everybody, but not to fear anyone. We talked about what we were going to do as a team and how we were going to win games and it worked for this group.

We raised our team batting average by ten points, which isn't a huge jump, but we made a significant jump in total bases. That was an area we stressed. We went from 11 home runs to 35 home runs and look at Tyler Houston, who went from one home run in 2016 to 12 in 2017.

The last thing I'll mention was our defense. We went from 89 errors the year before to 51. Coach [Brian] Meyer did a great job with our infielders and we also changed out the playing surface to eliminate bad hops.
 
SID: Talk about the new infield at Bulldog Park.

DS: Well, a former player of mine is a greenskeeper here in Indianapolis. He guided us through the entire process. After seeing the field and drawing up a plan, he decided to put Bermuda grass in the infield. The plan included putting Bermuda sod down, then kill that and reseed with rye, then kill the rye and go back to Bermuda and it worked out tremendously. I couldn't count the number of people that commented on how nice the field played. It was a huge help because our players became more confident knowing they don't have to worry about bad hops. It was such a huge improvement for our facility.
 
SID: Describe a typical practice.

DS: An emphasis for us in practice is just a simple, fundamental, boring infield drill. It includes making all the throws that infielders are going to have to make in a game. It's something we do every day and it only takes 15 minutes. It makes our guys focused and they become more accurate. After a while it becomes routine, so when those plays come up in a game our guys are ready.

The new infield combined with how we structure practice helped our overall team defense. I realize the guys would rather hit during practice, but I think that when you cut down over 30 errors from one season to the next they understand it's a huge step for our program.
 
SID: What does the future hold for Butler baseball?

DS: Moving forward we want to become more athletic. There is still a lot out there for us to achieve. It was a good first year as far as taking an initial step and posting a winning record, but now we want to get in the conference tournament and be a team that is competing for the BIG EAST Championship.

When you look at our season we had seven big weekends and we won four out of those seven. We split one and had two bad weekends. We were in all three of the St. John's games, but it turned out to be a tough weekend. The next step is to win those close games.
 
SID: How has recruiting gone for you at Butler?

DS: We have 12 freshmen coming in and seven of those 12 are pitchers. It's a class that reflects our feelings that pitching and defense will win games. The good news is that we have a really nice nucleus coming back built around Michael Hartnagel, Tyler Houston, Gehrig Parker, and Garrett Christman. Four veteran guys that have played a lot of innings here. That's a nice veteran group that will provide leadership. On the mound we will return Ryan Pepiot, Christman and Connor Mitchell. Three solid guys for the weekend.

Quentin Miller will also be a big part of what we are doing. He had a setback (illness) at the start of the year last year, but has had a really good summer and I think he has a chance to help us in the future. The bullpen will look different with Ottavio Dattolo and Chris Myjak both graduating. Some freshmen will have to step up next year.

Our recruiting class is unique in that there are guys coming in from all over the country. Now some of that is because we were behind when I got the job in terms of recruiting. In the future there will be a real emphasis on Indiana kids. I think we have players coming in from six or seven different states. Off the top of my head I can think of Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois and of course Indiana.

We feel that it is a well-rounded group that we are bringing in. There are some power hitters, some speed guys, couple of infielders, a catcher, and an outfielder. This recruiting class will give us some balance. We were really strong right-handed last year, so we have some left-handed hitters coming in to try to balance out our lineup.

The class is also very reflective of the academics at Butler. All the kids coming in have great GPA's and are exceptional student-athletes.
 
SID: What are some of the most memorable highlights of the 2017 season?

DS: Going undefeated against in-state rivals (7-0), throwing a no-hitter at Purdue, and Houston hitting three home runs in one game at Ohio.

I mentioned earlier that we really didn't focus on our opponent, but that changed when we played Indiana. They embarrassed us the year before and the players that experienced that went into the game with a chip on their shoulder. We played one of our better games of the season that night and pulled out a 7-5 win.

Sometimes players approach midweeks games thinking that they don't matter as much as a weekend series. Well, we emphasized that those games do matter. Especially when you look at recruiting. When you go to recruit a kid from the state of Indiana you can let them know that we beat these other in-state teams recruiting you. It helps validate our program. We also had a huge jump in RPI from last year to this year. Winning midweek games helped us rise on that list.

The no-hitter at Purdue was also a midweek win. It was a strange game because we had walked so many guys and hit so many guys that I didn't even realize we had a no-hitter going until the seventh inning. Coach Norton mentioned it to me, and it's clearly staring at me straight in the face on the scoreboard. After that conversation I said let's go for it.

We ran into some bad weather that day and had a delay so it took a lot of different guys to piece that one together. We went three outs at a time and when you get a no-hitter like that it's a great team builder. It helped our chemistry and our overall confidence as a pitching staff.

The highlight of the season offensively was Houston's three home run game down at Ohio. I've never had a player hit three home runs in a single-game before Tyler. After years and years of coaching that was my first experience with that accomplishment.

Honestly another highlight that really helped the turnaround was the Saint Louis series. SLU came in with a really good record and we were losing to them late in the eighth inning in game one. We came back and won that game and were able to do it to them again the next day. I think it made our guys believe that we could play with anybody.
 
SID: Any closing comments?

DS: I just couldn't be happier for the players. When you see a turnaround like that it helps so much. Guys enjoy coming to the park much more than they did before and the overall experience is just better. To me as a coach that's what it's all about. Seeing growth in these kids, seeing them enjoying the game and seeing how good they can be to reach their potential. That's the fun part for us as a coaching staff.

Now the difficult part is maintaining that level and developing a tradition. That will be our theme going into this year. Let's start developing a tradition. Expect to have a winning season every year. We built the foundation and now we need to make sure 2017 wasn't a one-year fluke.