Butler's home opener set for Tuesday afternoon against Bowling Green has been canceled due to poor field conditions, but the Bulldogs will still be in action this week with a road game at Louisville on Wednesday. The Cardinals will host the Bulldogs at Jim Patterson Stadium. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
 
Scouting Louisville
The Cardinals are 4-1 with impressive wins over #7 Texas (4-3) and #12 Arizona (13-1). Their lone setback was a Top-25 matchup against #13 Oklahoma State at a neutral site. Their first midweek matchup was supposed to be played last week against Xavier, but weather postponed that contest and the weather would also adjust their weekend series against Western Michigan. The Broncos made it to Louisville, but couldn't take the field until Saturday. The Cards won that game 14-3 and notched a 7-2 win on Sunday. The third game was pushed to Monday afternoon.
 
Matt Klein, Zion Rose and Jake Munroe are all batting over .400 at the start of the season. Klein leads the club with a .500 average over his first five starts. He has nine hits including a double and a triple. Rose is tied with Klein for the team lead in hits with nine. He has two doubles and a homer this season. Munroe only has one extra base hit, but he's scored six runs.
 
No starter has been named for the upcoming midweek game. As a team, Louisville holds a 4.07 ERA. 16 pitchers have already touched the rubber for Louisville over their first five games of the season.
 
About Butler
Butler won two games over the weekend to move their overall record to 3-3. Their three game series at Norfolk State was cut down to just two games that were played in a doubleheader format in Goldsboro, N.C. BU won game one 16-7 and took the nightcap 10-0. Ben Whiteside and Marcus Goodpaster each picked up a win on the mound. Whiteside struck out eight and only walked one. Goodpaster struck out four over four scoreless innings.
 
At the plate, Jack Moroknek hit .636 over the weekend delivering two doubles and two home runs. He had five RBIs over the two-games vs. Norfolk State and scored four runs. Tommy Townsend and Danny Barbero also had homers. BU had 10 doubles in the shortened series with David Ayers supplying three of the 10.
 
BIG EAST Standings
Xavier 4-3
Butler 3-3
Creighton 3-3
Villanova 3-3
Georgetown 3-4
Seton Hall 2-4
UConn 1-5
St. John's 0-6
 
Bulldog Bits
- Butler leads the BIG EAST in batting average (.311) doubles (17), triples (3) and home runs (13)
- BU also leads the league in on-base percentage (.408), slugging percentage (.594), and runs (53)
- Jack Moroknek leads the BIG EAST in hits (13) and ranks second in batting average (.481)
- His five home runs are tops in the league and he's also the leader in runs (10) and total bases (32)
- Moroknek has five multi-hit games over Butler's first six contests
- Moroknek and Jack Bello are tied for the league lead in doubles with four each
- David Ayers rank second in on-base percentage (.591) and is fifth in stolen bases (3)
- Tommy Townsend leads the team with three multi-RBI games
- Townsend is also on a six-game hitting streak
- Townsend and Moroknek have reached base safely in all six games
- Butler recorded 29 hits over two games vs. Norfolk State
- The Bulldogs also struck out 11 batters in each game against the Spartans
- BU has hit at least one home run in every game this season
 
Up Next
Butler will play a three-game series at Ohio this weekend. First pitch in Athens on Friday is set for 3 p.m. Saturday's tilt will get going at 2 p.m. and the finale features a 1 p.m. start.