INDIANAPOLIS – The last two midweek games of the 2023 season are on deck for Butler as the Bulldogs travel to Northern Kentucky on Tuesday and face Dayton early on Wednesday before resuming BIG EAST action. Tuesday's tilt in Highland Heights will feature a traditional start time of 3 PM. Wednesday's game at Dayton will get started at 11 AM.
 
Midweek Schedule
Tuesday, May 9 at NKU (Live Stats)
Wednesday, May 10 at Dayton (ESPN+ / Live Stats)
 
Scouting Northern Kentucky
The Norse were swept at Wright State over the weekend, moving their overall record to 26-20. Tuesday's contest is the last home midweek game for NKU and the beginning of four-straight at home. Northern Kentucky is 15-6 this season when playing at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex, however they lost 10-7 last Tuesday to Eastern Kentucky. Aiden Bradbury got the start vs. Colonels, which makes him a candidate to take the mound against Butler. Noah Fisher, Manny Vorhees and Liam McFadden-Ackman all hit home runs for NKU on May 2. Fisher leads the club with 14 home runs this season and McFadden-Ackman is tied with Vorhees with 10 each. Fisher and Colton Kucera each enter the Butler game with 58 total hits. Kucera has the best batting average on the team at .387.
 
Scouting Dayton
The Flyers will play at Wright State on Tuesday before hosting Butler on Wednesday. 10 of Dayton's 18 total wins this season have come at Woerner Field. They did however lose their last home midweek matchup against Toledo (9-3) on April 25. Ryan Steinhauer tossed 5.1 innings in that game and left the mound with no decision. Steinhauer is a strong candidate to start one of Dayton's midweek games. He is 1-5 overall this year over 11 starts. The senior has 33 strikeouts in 36.1 innings. At the plate, Ben Jones, Carlos Castillo and Marcos Pujols are the players to watch. Jones is the teams hit leader with 61 in 43 starts. Pujols is Dayton's RBI and home run leader and Castillo is a speedster with 13 stolen bases and a .299 batting average.
 
Recent History vs. the Competition
Northern Kentucky defeated Butler in Indianapolis earlier this season on April 18. The Norse scored three runs in the fourth, three more in the sixth and a final two in the ninth to win 8-3. All three BU runs came in the ninth inning. Zach Byron got the win on the mound and Shane Kilfoyle took the loss. Joey Urban led BU with three hits and an RBI. The Norse found the win column despite coming up with just four hits. Every hit came from a different player.
 
Butler's last meeting against Dayton came on April 20, 2022. The Bulldogs posted a 7-2 win over the visiting Flyers by scoring five runs after the fourth inning. Aaron Barokas got the win and Austin Brush took the loss. Dominic Milano had a two-RBI single in the sixth for BU and Kyle Van Liere would add a two-run home run for the 'Dawgs in the seventh.
 
BIG EAST Standings
#9 UConn 11-3, 35-11
Xavier 11-4, 30-17
Creighton 9-6, 22-18
Seton Hall 7-8, 25-22
Georgetown 8-9, 25-23
Villanova 7-10, 13-32
St. John's, 4-10, 23-23
Butler 4-11, 11-36
 
Upcoming BIG EAST Schedule
Xavier at St. John's
Creighton at Seton Hall
Butler at UConn
 
Last Week
The Bulldogs went 2-2 last week and won the BIG EAST weekend series against the Georgetown Hoyas. Scott Jones hit .385 with five hits in 13 at-bats and led the team with five runs scored. Carter Dorighi had six total hits and scored four runs for BU. Power at the plate was delivered by Joey Urban and Kollyn All. Each student-athlete had three doubles over the four-game stretch to push their slugging percentages over .500. On the mound, Cory Bosecker and Ben Whiteside recorded wins at Georgetown. Bosecker struck out six over five and limited the Hoyas to just one hit. Clay Holzworth was also impressive throwing three scoreless innings in relief in D.C.
 
20 Runs!
Butler scored 20 runs at Georgetown on May 7 to win the weekend series against the Hoyas. It was just the third time for Butler to score 20 runs since joining the BIG EAST in 2014. BU defeated Saint Francis in 2022 by the final score 22-4. They beat Saint Peter's 21-7 in 2019. Their highest scoring game against a BIG EAST opponent before last weekend came in 2019 when the Bulldogs defeated the Villanova Wildcats 17-0 on May, 5 2019.
 
Bulldog Bits
- Butler set season-high marks in runs (20), hits (18), RBIs (20) and doubles (6) at Georgetown
- Joey Urban has 15 multi-hit games and has more than one RBI in nine games
- Urban came up with his first four-game hit at Georgetown
- Scott Jones is on a four-game hitting streak
- Jones scored a season-high four runs at Georgetown on Sunday
- Garret Gray has reached base safely in four-straight games
- Gray set a new season-high total with three RBI in Sunday's win at GU
- Ryan O'Halloran hit his second home run of the season at Georgetown
- O'Halloran set new season-high totals with four RBIs and three runs scored vs. the Hoyas
- Carter Dorighi had a 4-for-5 games at GU with three runs scored
- Kollyn All had two doubles in his last game
- Jake DeFries recorded three RBI in his last game tying his season-high total
- Clay Holzworth has only allowed one earned run over his last five appearances
- Holzworth has only walked one batter over his last nine innings
- Cade Thune has tossed three full innings in back-to-back appearances
- Billy Wurch went 3-for-5 in his last game with two RBI and two runs scored
- Butler only won one BIG EAST weekend series in 2022, they have now won two in 2023
- BU will attempt to win three-straight games for the first time this season on Tuesday
- The Bulldogs have won seven games on the road this year after winning just five the year prior
 
Up Next
The final BIG EAST road trip of the 2023 regular season will send the Bulldogs to #9 UConn. The three-game series opens up on Friday, May 12 at 6 PM. UConn+ will stream all three games. Start times for Saturday and Sunday are slated for 1 PM.