EVANSVILLE – The Purple Aces scored five of their seven runs in the third inning to post a 7-0 victory over the Bulldogs on Friday night. Shane Gray shut down the Bulldog bats, striking out seven over eight full innings of action.
 
How It Happened
Butler's offense never got going in game one of the three-game series at Evansville. The 'Dawgs were limited to just two hits and four fielding errors would allow the Purple Aces to take the 7-0 win.
 
The third inning told the story with Evansville getting five runs off five hits. Three-straight singles started the inning and the game would move to 1-0 on a fielder's choice. The 'Dawgs got their first out at home plate, but two more singles would follow in the order to move the score to 4-0. The fifth run went down unearned, but put Butler in a hole they could not climb out of.
 
Insurance runs came in the sixth and seventh innings. Craig flied out to center for a sac fly to score Komonosky and a second sac fly in the seventh took us to our final score.
 
The win went to Gray and Connor Schultz would be hit with the loss. Schultz struck out 10 and didn't issue a walk over six full frames. Only three runs against him were earned.
 
Stat of the Game
Butler was limited to just two hits on Friday. Aaron Steinhart singled through the right side in the third and Andy Bennett singled back up the middle in the seventh.
 
Up Next
These two teams will meet again tomorrow at 1 PM.