INDIANAPOLIS – Butler and St. John's will go head-to-head at Kaiser Stadium this weekend in Queens, N.Y. All three games will stream on ESPN+. The opener will be under the lights with a 6 PM start.
 
Weekend Schedule
Friday, April 19 – 6 PM
Saturday, April 20 – 3 PM
Sunday, April 21 – 1 PM
 
Scouting St. John's
The Red Storm lost at home for the first time this season on Tuesday night by taking an 11-9 setback to visiting Columbia. The Lions moved the Johnnies overall record to 23-8-1 and 14-1-1 at Jack Kaiser Stadium. In conference action, STJ is 4-2 heading into the weekend. They swept Villanova and went 1-2 at UConn. Head Coach Mike Hampton was an All-American at Clemson before being drafted in the fourth round by the Cincinnati Reds. He spent 18 seasons on Ed Blankmeyer's staff before becoming the leader of the program in 2020. Hampton guided the Red Storm to a signature win at the start of the 2024 campaign by defeating No. 2 Florida 9-5 in Gainesville in the season opener.
 
The Johnnies lead the BIG EAST in batting average (.309), scoring (8.7), triples (15), sac flies (19), and shutouts (4). Blake Mayberry leads the team, the conference and ranks 40th in the nation with his .402 batting average. Jimmy Keenan is another dangerous bat in the St. John's lineup. A sophomore catcher from White Plains, Keenan leads the team with 48 hits. He leads the team in doubles (14), home runs (8) and RBIs (39).
 
Kyle Chase, Evan Chaffee, and Mario Pesca are probable starters for the Red Storm this weekend. Pesca and Xavier Kolhosser have been great on the mound for STJ this season. Each member of that duo have struck out 29 batters over 40+ innings of action. Pesca is 4-0 on the mound and Kolhosser is 7-1. Louis Mariano is the strikeout leader at St. John's with 33. Evan Chaffee has 24 K's over six starts. He is 3-0 on the mound with a 5.51 ERA. Kyle Chase is the wildcard of the group. The right-handed freshman has only tossed 7.1 innings this year. He is 0-1 overall with a 6.14 ERA.
 
All-Time Series
Butler is 4-24-1 against St. John's since the two programs became conference rivals in 2014. The Johnnies have won five-straight with the lone tie of the series coming in the 2022 finale. Butler's last win came on May 15, 2021 by the final score of 4-1. BU won game two of the series in 2019 and clinched a spot in the conference tournament with a 3-0 win at St. John's in 2018. BU's first win over STJ came in 2016. They won the finale 13-5.
 
On the Mound
Butler will likely start Tyler Banks and Ben Whiteside this weekend with the third spot still up in the air. Banks has an 8.24 ERA over nine starts. In BIG EAST action he earned a win at Creighton, but recently took a loss vs. Georgetown. He threw 96 pitches in his last outing vs. the Hoyas, his second-highest pitch count of the season. Whiteside got the start on Wednesday and threw an inning against Miami Ohio. His last five appearances have been in a starting role. His longest, and best, outing was against Georgetown on April 13. The lefty threw 83 pitches over 5.1 innings. He limited the Hoyas to two runs off five hits.
 
BIG EAST Standings
Georgetown 8-1, 25-10
St. John's 4-2, 23-8-1
UConn 4-2, 17-18
Creighton 3-3, 27-7
Xavier 3-3, 18-18
Villanova 3-6, 12-22
Seton Hall 1-5, 18-18
Butler 1-5, 14-21
 
Bulldog Bits
- Carter Dorighi had two hits vs. Miami giving him a team-high 20 multi-hit games this season
- Dorighi has five multi-hit games over Butler's last seven games
- Kade Lewis was out of the lineup Wednesday but takes a seven-game hitting streak to New York
- Joey Urban has reached base safely in 11-straight games
- Urban is batting .478 in BIG EAST games and .410 during the month of April
- Butler took a season-high 46 at-bats in the game at Eastern Michigan
- The 'Dawgs came up with a season-high 19 hits against the Eagles
- BU also recorded 33 total bases to set a new season-high total
- Jack Moroknek became the fourth player in program history to hit three home runs in a game at EMU
- Moroknek had 13 total bases on Tuesday and scored four runs
- Evan Parks has gone 4-for-9 this week with three RBIs, a double and a triple
- The Bulldogs have hit a double in 11-straight games
- BU has seven doubles over their last three games, giving them 60 this season
- Butler needs 11 more home runs to set the team single-season record (56 – 1998)
- Xavier Carter has walked at least one time in six of Butler's last seven games
- Ethan Vecrumba got the start at DH at EMU and went 4-for-6 with a double and two runs scored
- Billy Wurch has scored a run in four-straight games
 
Up Next
Butler will play a midweek game at Eastern Illinois next Tuesday and jump back into BIG EAST action with a home series vs. Seton Hall.