PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. – Postseason hopes are still alive for the Butler baseball team as the Bulldogs held off Villanova to earn an 11-8 win at Villanova Ballpark on Thursday afternoon. An early 6-0 lead for BU quickly faded away as the Wildcats pushed all eight of their runs across home plate in the final stages of the game. The Bulldogs were able to respond with five runs in the final three innings to win the game.

The Bulldogs are now 6-10 in BIG EAST competition, yet they are still two games back of Xavier with two games to play as the Musketeers came up with a 9-4 win vs. Creighton.

Three players tallied two RBIs for the Bulldogs with Marcos Calderon once again leading the charge. The senior came up big with a two-RBI single to left field in the top of the eighth inning to break a 7-7 tie. The Wildcats would move back within one run with a single score in the bottom half of the inning, but the Bulldogs would not be denied as they added two insurance runs in the ninth.

Ryan Wojciechowski recorded his third hit of the day to lead-off the ninth inning as his single to centerfield gave the team momentum. Pat Guinane would enter the game to run for Wojciechowski and Nick Bartolone would walk giving Chris Marras a crunch time at-bat. Marras made the most of his opportunity as he sent a single down the leftfield line to score Guinane. The second run of the inning would come after a double from Caponi, his second of the day.

Gunner Johnson got the start and struck out six batters, but it was Will Schierholz that picked up the win. Senior Billy Laing came in to slam the door shut as he picked up his seventh save of the year in a perfect ninth inning that included two strikeouts.

Butler started and ended the game on high notes, coming away with an important road win. Three RBI doubles in the first two innings allowed Butler to open up a quick 3-0 lead. Quincy Quintero, Wojciechowski and Caponi all came up with key extra-base hits, while Austin Miller joined in on the fun with an RBI single to left center that sent Caponi around to score in the second giving the Bulldogs a 4-0 cushion.

The BU lead would then move to 6-0 after a Chris Maranto triple to deep centerfield that scored Miller and Will Amador. Czinege and Beermann led the comeback charge for VU, but strong pitching from Butler and a late push kept the Bulldogs alive in the chase to the BIG EAST Tournament.