CHARLESTON, S.C. – Butler took a 3-2 lead against Charleston Southern in the top of the fifth inning on Saturday morning, but that advantage would not hold as the Buccaneers went on to record a 7-3 victory.

The Bucs scored a single run in the first and fourth innings to take the early lead, but a three-run top of the fifth from BU would make things exciting. Cole Malloy scored the first run of the game for BU off a groundout from Michael Hartnagel. Malloy reached base on a lead-off bunt and was able to move all the way around to third after a throwing error by the CSU pitcher.

With one out and one run already on the scoreboard, Drew Small stepped up to deliver a double to left field. Small was not able to advance during the next two at-bats, but a two-RBI blast from Chris Marras would clear the bases with two outs as the catcher found room inside the leftfield line to record a double.

Butler's lead was short lived as the home team posted two runs off two hits in the bottom of the inning. An RBI double sent the first run in and the second would come around off a wild pitch.

Butler went down 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth, meanwhile CSU added two more runs. A one-out triple with one Buccaneer already on board pushed the first run home. The second was unearned as fielding error allowed CSU to take a 6-3 lead into the stretch.

The top of the Charleston Southern lineup continued to beat up BU as the Bucs added one final run to their overall total in the eighth. The top four players in the batting order combined for seven hits, three RBIs and five runs.

Butler was led by Malloy who went 2-for-4 from the dish with a run scored and Chris Marras who came up with the two-RBI double that gave BU their only lead of the game.

The win went to Daniel Johnson (1-1) while the loss fell to Danny Pobereyko (0-2). Johnson was hit with all three earned runs before his exit after five complete innings. He struck out four and only walked two.

Pobereyko's line featured three strikeouts, two walks and four earned runs off six hits. He lasted 4.1 innings and would hand the ball off to Connor Mitchell. Joining Pobereyko and Mitchell with an appearance for BU today was Brock Balderson and Quentin Miller. Each pitcher gave up one earned run to bring us to the 7-3 final.

The third game of the three-game series at Joe Riley Park will be played tomorrow, Sunday Feb. 28 at 10 a.m.