INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler baseball team took the field at Bulldog Park for the first time this season to split a Saturday doubleheader against the Western Michigan Broncos. The Bulldogs earned a 3-2 win in game one, but were defeated 9-3 in the nightcap.

BU pushed the game-winning run across home plate in the bottom of the sixth inning to defeat Western Michigan in the opener. The game was scheduled for seven innings, making the score in the sixth even more important.

Chris Maranto singled to right field to pick up the game-winning RBI as Michael Fries went to the dish. Butler had built an early 2-0 lead after the second inning with Nick Bartolone and Pat Guinane picking up RBIs. Bartolone sent a base knock through the right side of the infield to score Will Amador while Guinane delivered a double to left that allowed Quincy Quintero to score.

Billy Laing would come in from the Butler bullpen to earn his first win of the season. Laing replaced Kyle Allen who got the start and threw 5.2 innings of good baseball. Only one of Western Michigan's two runs were earned as Allen limited WMU to five hits. Laing tossed the final 1.1 innings to give Butler the victory.

Game two went to Western Michigan as the Broncos scored nine runs off 13 hits. All of Butler's offense in the second game came off one swing of the bat as Fries hit a three-run shot over the leftfield fence. Marcos Calderon and Drew Small scored on the homer.

Danny Pobereyko was hit with the loss for Butler while Pat Haynes earned the win for Western Michigan. Additional arms to see action in game two for Butler included Peter Nyznyk and Will Schierholz.

Butler will return to action with a game on Tuesday, March 18 when they host Rockhurst. First pitch is slated for 3:30.