INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler baseball team will play at Ball State on Tuesday before hosting a 3 PM game at Bulldog Park against Eastern Illinois on Wednesday. Tuesday's tilt in Muncie will stream on ESPN+ at 12 PM. Wednesday's showdown was rescheduled after rain washed out the original date on April 2.
 
Scouting Ball State
The Cardinals won a MAC series at Northern Illinois over the weekend by recording wins in game one and game three. The victories move their overall record to 27-19-1. 14 of those 27 wins have been recorded against conference foes, placing BSU fifth in the Mid-American Conference standings.
 
Michael Halliquist is a player to watch on Tuesday. The senior from Fargo, North Dakota leads the team with a .332 batting average and is the league leader in total bases with 132. Hallquist has 15 doubles and 17 home runs to post a .684 slugging percentage. Hunter Dobbins is another player to keep an eye on. He has 15 doubles and 16 home runs this season.
 
Will Jacobson got the start for Ball State the last time the Cardinals played the Bulldogs. He struck out six batters and didn't issue a walk over five full innings. Zach Kwasny threw 3.1 innings that day and Tanner Knapp recorded the final two outs to earn his fourth save of the season.
 
Scouting Eastern Illinois
The Panthers will play at Northwestern on Tuesday before traveling to Indianapolis on Wednesday. Currently, EIU has a 15-28 record that includes a 9-12 mark in the OVC. They recently won a game at Tennessee Tech, but would fall to the Golden Eagles in games two and three, losing by a combined three runs.
 
Lucas Loos is the star player in the Panther lineup. The senior is an Oakland transfer that ranks 10th in the NCAA this year with 20 doubles. Loos has the third highest batting average (.376) in the OVC and ranks eighth in total hits (64). Loos has 17 home runs in 2024 and 48 RBI. He leads the OVC in sac flies (5), ranks second in slugging percentage (.806) and is third in total bases (137).
 
On the mound, EIU used six pitchers against Butler in the first meeting. Mitch Alba got the start, but was unable to record an out before he was sent to the dugout. Christian Carew had the most success against the BU lineup. The right-hander struck out five over four full innings.
 
Last Week
Carter Dorighi hit .412 last week with two doubles and a home run to generate five RBIs. Kade Lewis nearly matched his production with seven hits to help post a team-best six RBIs. Evan Parks, Ian Choi and Ethan Vecrumba also hit over .300 while making multiple starts.
 
BIG EAST Standings
UConn 12-3, 27-19
St. John's 11-4, 31-11-1
Georgetown 10-4, 29-16
Xavier 9-6, 25-22
Seton Hall 5-10, 22-26
Villanova 5-10, 15-29
Creighton 4-10, 31-14
Butler 3-12, 17-30
 
Bulldog Bits
- Carter Dorighi had seven hits over four games last week to raise his season total to 76
- Dorighi leads the BIG EAST and ranks ninth in the nation in hits
- Dorighi needs seven hits to break the Butler single-season record set by Harrison Freed in 2019 (82)
- Dorighi heads to Muncie on a 10-game hitting streak
- Dorighi is batting .434 this year with runners in scoring position and .483 with two outs in the inning
- Dorighi leads the BIG EAST in total bases (114)
- Kade Lewis ranks second in the BIG EAST in hits (64) and batting average (.374)
- Lewis leads the league in slugging percentage (.643) and triples (4)
- Joey Urban leads the BIG EAST in sacrifice flies (5)
- Butler ranks third in the conference in home runs with 54
- BU needs just three home runs to break the single-season team record set in 1998 (56)
- Jack Moroknek and Carter Dorighi have started in all 47 games this season
- Moroknek has reached base safely in 13-straight games
- Xavier Carter scored a run in each game vs. Xavier over the weekend
- Ian Choi recorded his fourth multi-hit game of the season on Sunday vs. Xavier
- Cole Graverson threw a season-high 102 pitches in relief on Sunday
- Graverson struck out a season-high seven batters over 6.1 innings
- 6.1 innings is the longest outing of any BU pitcher this season
- Graverson has a team-high 50 strikeouts this year in 45 innings
- Nate Rosser threw 5.1 innings in his last start, setting a new season-high
- Rosser struck out a season-high six batters
- Evan Parks scored multiple runs in a game this weekend for the first time since March 2
- Parks walked four times vs. Xavier on Friday
- Ethan Vecrumba recorded a season-high four RBIs vs. Xavier
- Ball State won the first meeting 7-6 at Bulldog Park on March 20
- The Cardinals scored five runs in the first inning to build their lead
- BU scored three in the bottom of the ninth to make it a one-run game
- Moroknek and Lewis homered in the ninth
- Butler won 10-6 at Eastern Illinois on April 24
- Billy Wurch hit a grand slam in the first inning to put BU in front
- At least one Butler player has hit a double for the Bulldogs in 22-straight games
- The Bulldogs are 11-12 this season in away games
- 15 of Butler's 17 wins have come against at right-handed starter
- Butler is 10-10 this year when they score first
- Blake Beemer was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Eastern Illinois from 2016-18
- Beemer had the same role with Ball State from 2019-2022 before coming to Butler 
 
Up Next
Butler will play at Villanova this weekend. The three-game series will begin on Friday with a 3 PM start. All three contests will stream on FloSports.com.