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INDIANAPOLIS – After a 2-1 weekend versus Rider, the Butler baseball team will travel to New Orleans this weekend for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Baseball Classic. The Bulldogs will play Rutgers, Chicago State and New Orleans. Game times are set for 11:00 AM, 5 PM and 1 PM.
 
Allstate Sugar Bowl Baseball Classic
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has been a proud sponsor of the University of New Orleans for the past five years. This year will mark the second year of the Allstate Sugar Bowl Baseball Classic at Maestri Field on the campus of the lakefront school.
 
Allstate Sugar Bowl Baseball Classic Schedule
Friday, February 22
11:00 a.m., Butler vs. Rutgers
6:30 p.m., UNO vs. Chicago State
 
Saturday, February 23
1 p.m., UNO vs. Rutgers
5 p.m., Butler vs. Chicago State
 
Sunday, February 24
9 a.m., Chicago State vs. Rutgers
1 p.m., UNO vs. Butler
*All games played at Maestri Field in New Orleans
 
Projected Starters
Friday – RHP #13 Ryan Pepiot vs LHP Harry Rutkowski
Saturday – RHP #27 Sam Hubbe vs TBA
Sunday – RHP #30 Connor Schultz vs RHP #31 Steven Swift

Scouting Rutgers (0-3)
The Scarlet Knights are coming off of a 25-25 season in which they finished 11th in the Big Ten Conference. Sixth-year head coach Joe Litterio leads a team with 17 returning players and 16 newcomers including nine for the pitching staff. Junior Kevin Welsh and sophomores Mike Nyszitor and Harry Rutkowski earned preseason honors from the Big Ten. Rutgers also returns their batting average leader from a year ago, Luke Bowerbank. The senior hit .303 in 2018 with 46 hits on the year while posting the lowest strikeout percentage in the conference at just one per 13.8 at-bats. Freshman Peter Serruto will also make a major impact for Rutgers after a successful high school career placed him as a 22nd round selection in the MLB draft last June.
 
The pitching staff of Rutgers underwent a major overhaul this past off-season. The Scarlet Knights will welcome nine new faces to their roster in 2019. The Rutgers staff is led by typical Friday starter Serafino Brito and strikeout leader Harry Rutowski. Brito posted a 3.57 ERA in 45.1 innings last season while Rutowski went 4-6 in 13 starts with a 5.34 ERA.
 
Rutgers is coming off three-straight losses to the University of Miami last weekend where they were outscored 35-7. This will be the first-ever meeting between the Scarlet Knights and the Bulldogs.
 
Scouting Chicago State (0-3)
Butler will take on the Chicago State Cougars on Saturday afternoon for the 16th meeting between the two teams. Butler holds a 12-3 record against the Cougars in the all-time series with the last meeting coming in 2017. Chicago State is picked to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference after a 13-41 season a year ago. Seven of their 13 wins came in conference.
 
The Cougars and seventh-year head coach Steve Joslyn dropped their first three games to Pacific last weekend. Saturday starter Vinny Venturi, pitched four innings in which he gave up three hits and only one earned run. Rodney Valdes is the other potential starter, who collected the loss in his first outing. Valdes threw five innings letting up five hits and two runs. Lead-off hitter Andy Gayton led the team with three hits in the series. Second baseman Matt Sullivan also had three hits and an RBI.
 
Scouting New Orleans (2-1)
The New Orleans Privateers entered 2019 in grand fashion, winning their opening series versus the Michigan State Spartans. The Southland Conference member posted a 29-32 record a season ago including a 14-16 mark against conference opponents.
 
The Privateers returned two key hitters to their lineup in Beau Bratton and Pearce Howard. Bratton was named to the Preseason Southland Conference First Team, while Howard was picked for the second team. The team was picked to finish seventh overall in the conference.
 
In the series vs Michigan State, Howard hit .600 including a 3-for-4 effort in the third game of the series. In 2018, Howard hit .288.
 
On the mound, the Privateer rotation is headed by freshman Steven Swift, junior Chris Turpin and senior Brayson Smith. Swift took a loss in his first start of his collegiate career. The 6-2 right-hander exited the hill after just three innings. He gave up five runs off three hits, striking out five and walking one. Two of the three hits allowed went for extra bases.
 
BIG EAST Standings
Creighton 3-0
Butler 2-1
Seton Hall 0-3
Xavier 0-3
Villanova 0-3
Georgetown 0-3
St. John's 0-3
 
About Butler
The Bulldogs lead the BIG EAST in team batting average (.345), slugging percentage (.628), on-base percentage (.444), hits (39), triples (3), and home runs (6). Kyle Smith leads the conference in runs scored (7) and total bases (15) while teammate Harrison Freed leads all BIG EAST players in RBI (7), and home runs (3).
 
On the mound, Butler has the best team ERA in the league at 3.00. Ryan Pepiot ranks second in strikeouts with nine and Butler has two student-athletes with multiple innings pitched and a 0.00 ERA in Jack Myers and Joe Graziano.
 
Schrage Eyes 800 Wins
Dave Schrage now has 799 wins as a head coach during his 30-year coaching career. He got his start at Waldorf (Iowa) in 1988 and made stops at Northern Iowa and Northern Illinois before landing at Evansville in 2003. Schrage was named head coach at Notre Dame in 2007 and would spend five years at South Dakota State before taking over at Butler in 2017.
 
Smith Earns BIG EAST Honors
Senior outfielder Kyle Smith hit .545 (6-for-11) over opening weekend against Rider. Of his six hits, four were for extra bases as he had a double, one triple and two home runs for the series with six RBI and seven runs scored and a 1.364 slugging percentage. Smith had a league-high five RBI and two homers in the 14-3 Saturday win over Rider which tied the series. Smith batted in the No. 2 spot.