INDIANAPOLIS –
Aaron Steinhart and
Robbie McCargar each delivered home runs and
James Gargano would send the game-winning run across home plate in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Butler a 5-4 win over Valparaiso on Friday night.
The first game of the weekend series was a wild one that got started with Valpo owning a 4-0 lead. Drudge opened up the scoring with an RBI single to right in the first inning and Valparaiso would add three more runs in the fourth.
Steinhart got two of the four runs back in the bottom half of the inning with a homer to right field that also scored Gargano. Steinhart's third RBI of the game would follow in the sixth with a sacrifice fly that scored
Jacob Margroff.
One of the biggest at-bats of the ball game came in the seventh with McCargar at the dish. The BU designated hitter stayed hot at the plate and blasted a home run to right centerfield to tie the game at 4-4.
Neither team was able to produce a run in the ninth which took us to extra innings.
John MacCauley kept Valpo off the scoreboard and the Valparaiso skipper put Jon Tieman on the hill for the tenth. The frame got underway with Tieman walking
Keenan Taylor. Head Coach
Dave Schrage would then pinch run
Jonathan Shoop for Taylor with Margroff up to bat.
Margroff did his job with a sacrifice bunt that advanced the runner and put Gargano at the plate with a runner in scoring position. Gargano hit a ball back up the middle of the field, but the Valpo second baseman had cheated towards the bag early to get to the ball and make a play. Gargano beat out the close throw and the ball would get by the first baseman allowing Shoop to come around and score the game-winning run.
MacCauley threw the final 2.2 innings to get the win (2-1) and Tieman would be hit with the loss. Butler started
Connor Schultz. The right-hander struck out 10 and only walked one over six full innings.
Nick Eaton was also impressive for BU out of the pen.
Butler and Valpo will play a doubleheader tomorrow with the opening pitch coming to home plate at 12 PM.
