INDIANAPOLIS -- The Butler baseball team finished strong against Bradley on Saturday afternoon at Bulldog Park to earn a 3-1 victory. The win moves Butler's overall record to 7-14.

"What a great team win for us today," Head Coach Steve Farley stated. "Over the last two games we've gotten great starting pitching from both Jeff Schank and Nick Morton. Zach Barnes has also been outstanding in the closer role."

Today's game focused on defense with the true battle taking place on the mound. Both starting pitchers, Nick Morton for the Bulldogs and Cameron Roegner for the Braves, came out throwing hot and both had solid starts.

Morton tossed seven full innings, allowing just one run. The Braves scattered seven hits over the diamond against the starter, but Morton did a nice job of keeping runners off base by only walking one and striking out six.

Roegner was also impressive on the mound as he threw 7.1 innings of action before being replaced by Eric Scheuermann.

The Bulldogs got their first shot at scoring in the second with runners on second and third after the Michael Hartnagel single, but failed to advance them any further.

They did however succeed at scoring in the fourth. The inning was started off with an infield single by Chris Marras who then was able to make it all the way home on a rocketing double by Jordan Lucio to the farthest part of center field.

Lucio had a strong day with the bat, going 2-3 with two doubles and tacking on a run late in the game to go with the RBI.

The matchup got even more exciting late in the game with both starting pitchers going deep into the contest. Bradley picked up a double to deep centerfield in the seventh that moved runners to second and third. Brady Wilkins would then come to the dish for the Braves and record a sac fly to right that tied the game at 1-1.

The lead wouldn't last however as Butler came up with two runs in the eighth to earn the win. Garrett Christman impacted the inning with a single to center that loaded the bases. Then, after a 12-pitch battle of continuous foul balls, Michael Hartnagel patiently drew the walk that would bring in the winning run.

"We got a couple of clutch hits today," Farley added. "I thought Michael Hartnagel really stepped up for us with a run saving defensive web gem. His gutsy RBI at-bat in the 8th inning was also huge for us. Our guys have really hung tough during a very challenging part of our schedule and I'm proud of their effort."

The Bulldogs would bring one more run home with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Gehrig Parker that scored Jordan Lucio.

The winning pitcher today was Zach Barnes, who came in late to relieve starting pitcher Morton and closed the game smoothly. He tossed the final two innings of action and didn't allow a single hit.

Butler will be back in action once again tomorrow for a doubleheader. BU will host Bradley at noon and end the weekend with a game against Western Michigan.

Written by Sam Barasch