FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Butler baseball team chalked up their 19th win of the season on Tuesday afternoon with a 9-5 win at Fort Wayne. The Bulldogs scored nine runs off 13 hits. They scored five runs in the third, a solo run in the seventh and three more in the top of the ninth to secure the victory.
 
A total team effort lifted Butler past Fort Wayne as six different student-athletes recorded an RBI. Garrett Christman was in the box score with a team-high two RBIs after going 3-for-4 from the plate. Jacob Margroff matched Christman with three hits as the BU lead-off man.
 
Margroff and Michael Hartnagel each scored two runs in the win. Hartnagel, Gehrig Parker and Connor Dall all hit doubles at Mastodon Field.
 
The pitching effort came from six different players with freshman Joe Graziano getting the start. Graziano threw four full innings and struck out three. He kept Fort Wayne off the scoreboard by limiting the Mastodons to just two hits.
 
Graziano got run support in the top of the third with five runs coming home on four hits. Tyler Houston singled through the left side to score Zach Jarosz and a Fort Wayne error during the next at-bat would move the score to 2-0.
 
Hartnagel's double to right scored Houston and a sac fly from Christman would allow Gehrig Parker to tag up. The final run of the third came off a Harrison Freed single to left.
 
Connor Dall was responsible for the single score in the seventh. Dall hit a double to left field that scored Hartnagel.
 
The game tightened up in the bottom half of the seventh with Fort Wayne scoring three runs. Their comeback hopes would end in the ninth however with Butler scoring three runs of their own.
 
James Gargano scored on a passed ball to make the game 7-5 and an RBI single to left from Gehrig Parker moved the score to 8-5. The final run of the game was scored by Margroff who went home off an RBI from Christman.
 
Butler will host Morehead State tomorrow at 4 PM. The game will stream on Facebook Live.