INDIANAPOLIS – Two Northern Kentucky home runs allowed the Norse to pick up an 8-2 victory at Bulldog Park on Tuesday afternoon. The first home run of the game gave the Norse a quick 1-0 lead and the three-run shot in the seventh put the game out of reach.

Cody Kuzniczci muscled a homerun ball through the wind and over the fence in right field to open up the scoring on Tuesday. The one-run lead wouldn't last long as a perfectly executed hit and run gave Butler runners on first and third with just one out in the bottom half of the inning. Tyler Houston came up with an RBI groundout to score Bartolone and the two clubs would move ahead knotted up at 1-1.

NKU added a run in the top of the fourth to once again take a one-run lead, but the story of the game came in the seventh after a three-run bomb from first baseman Trey Ganns. Butler didn't help their own cause in the seventh as the inning started with an error that allowed Quint Heady to reach. A wild pitch strikeout would also help extend the inning which ended up killing BU as Ganns homered with two outs in the inning.

Butler got one run back in the bottom of the seventh off an RBI single from Drew Small, but the deficit was too much to overcome giving NKU the 8-2 win.

Bartolone came up with two of Butler's seven hits on the day from the lead-off position. The Bulldogs had their chances, but the Blue and White ended the game with eight runners left on base.

Connor Mitchell got the start for BU, but five total pitchers would be used in the setback. Mitchell didn't play bad in his longest outing of the season that included 4.2 innings of work. The freshman struck out five and walked three. He gave up two earned runs before handing the ball off with the bases loaded to Luke Johnson.

Johnson got Butler out of trouble in the fifth and went on to throw a perfect sixth inning keeping Butler within striking distance.

The three-run blast came against Bobby Napoleon who relived Johnson for a single inning of work. Zero of the runs were earned due to the error that led-off the inning. Napoleon only allowed the one hit in his one inning of work. He also struck out one batter.

Kyle Allen and Danny Pobereyko also graced the mound for BU. Each player gave up one earned run in one inning of action.

Butler will return to action with a three-game series at Bulldog Park against Creighton this weekend. First pitch for Friday's contest is set for 3 p.m.