WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS | FLOLIVE

INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler baseball team will travel to Bloomington on Wednesday to face the Indiana Hoosiers at Bart Kaufman Field. IU will host Cincinnati the day prior in their 2019 home opener. Each contest will feature a 3 PM start time.
 
Schedule
Butler at Indiana – 3 PM
 
Projected Starters
#11 RHP John MacCauley vs. RHP Gabe Bierman
 
BIG EAST Standings
Creighton, 5-1
Butler, 2-3
St. John's, 1-4
Xavier, 1-5
Georgetown, 0-6
Villanova, 0-6
Seton Hall, 0-5
 
Best in the BIG EAST
The Bulldogs have the best team ERA in the conference after two weeks of the regular season. The pitching staff collectively posts a 2.47 ERA, with a conference-best 55 strikeouts.
 
Pepiot Pursues Strikeout Record
Junior right-hander Ryan Pepiot has 18 strikeouts over 10.1 innings of action this season. His 18 K's is the best mark in the BIG EAST.
 
Butler vs. Indiana
Indiana swept Butler last year in a three-game weekend series. The Hoosiers were ranked #11 at the time and posted victories of 6-5, 13-0, and 10-3. Butler's last win at Indiana came during the 2017 season on April 19. BU won 7-5 in Dave Schrage's first season at the helm.
 
Schrage Eyes 800 Wins
Dave Schrage 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.
 
Wednesday Forecast in Bloomington
The high calls for 50 degrees in Bloomington on Wednesday with a 20% chance of rain.
 
Scouting Indiana
The Hoosiers are 2-4 after the first two weeks of the regular season. IU took two of three games at Memphis over opening weekend, and but were swept at Tennessee this past weekend. The top three weapons in the Indiana order include Drew Ashley, Logan Kaletha and Sam Crail. Ashley and Kaletha are tied for the team lead in hits with five each. Ashely has the best average on the team at .294, but Kaletha is the RBI leader with five.
 
As a team, IU is hitting .169 with 83 strikeouts in 195 at-bats. They have shown power at the plate with six home runs, seven doubles and two triples thus far in the season. 15 of their 33 hits in 2019 have gone for extra bases.
 
Gabe Bierman will take the hill for Indiana on Wednesday. The 6-2 freshman from Jeffersonville, Ind. has just one appearance this season. He tossed one inning at Tennessee, resulting in two runs off two hits. He also walked two batters in his IU debut.
 
About Butler
Butler took two tough losses in New Orleans falling to each opponent in the bottom of the ninth inning. On Friday, Rutgers erased a 2-1 deficit to defeat Butler 3-2 on a two RBI, walk-off single. Saturday's game vs. Chicago State got washed out due to rain in the area. The Bulldogs stuck around on Sunday to play the host New Orleans Privateers. The 'Dawgs tied the game at 1-1 in the third, but fell 2-1 after a wild pitch in the ninth. Butler is now 2-3 overall with each win coming against Rider opening weekend.
 
Newcomer Kyle Smith leads the club with a .412 batting average. The hit leader after two weekends of play is Harrison Freed with eight. Same Hubbe and Connor Schultz each have a win for BU on the mound. Wednesday's projected starter is John MacCauley. He has just one appearance in 2019. He threw one complete inning and struck out one vs. Rider on Feb. 16.