INDIANAPOLIS - The Butler baseball team will once again be on the road this weekend as the Dawgs travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo. to take on the Murray State Racers in a three-game series. Game one of the series is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 20, with first pitch coming at 4 p.m. ET.
​
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
DATE: Friday, Feb. 20 - Sunday, Feb. 22
GAME TIMES: Friday - 4 PM ET, Saturday - 3 PM ET, Sunday 2 PM ET
LOCATION: Cape Girardeau, Mo. 
LIVE STATS: Butlersports.com
​
 
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS

• Butler enters the weekend series at 2-3 overall after going 1-1 in midweek action. BU picked up a 10-8 road victory at Illinois on Tuesday before dropping a high-scoring contest with EIU 15-12 on Wednesday evening.
• Danny Gavin has been spectacular this week for Butler, slashing .625/.727/.875 in two games. Gavin scored four runs and tallied two doubles and an RBI while earning two walks.
• Matthew Rhoades is off to a hot start in 2026, as the junior has hit four home runs in the first five games of the season for BU. Rhoades is boasting a .348 average and is tied for the team lead in RBIs with seven to his credit.
• Gavin Gilmore leads BU at the dish, batting .478 so far this season. Gilmore leads the team in hits with 11 and has earned a team-high four walks while recording seven RBIs.
• Through the first five games, Max Winders has made two appearances on the mound for BU, tossing 5.2 innings across both outings. Winders has been spectacular, allowing only one earned run while striking out seven. The sophomore picked up the win against Illinois on Tuesday after dominating for 5.1 innings and allowing only four hits while punching out six.
• Butler returns 17 letterwinners from a year ago and welcomes 21 new faces to the squad for 2026.
• Butler welcomed Ty Neal to the coaching staff this offseason as the program's pitching coach. Neal was an assistant coach at Michigan in 2025, helping the Wolverines post a 33-23 overall record. They went 16-14 in the Big Ten standings and held a 4.92 team ERA. Neal has made stops at Michigan, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Indiana, Miami Ohio, and Southern Illinois. He brings nearly 20 years of coaching experience to the program and has assisted in the recruiting and development of over 50 MLB draft picks.
• Freshman Grayson Bradberry was named the BIG EAST Preseason Freshman of the Year by D1Baseball and Perfect Game prior to the start of the season. Bradberry hails from Columbia City, Indiana and earned All-Conference honors (3x), Pre-Season All-State honors, team MVP (2x), NE8 Conference Player of the Year and was chosen as a two-time team captain.
• In 2025, Butler saw Jack Moroknek get drafted in the 11th round by the Washington Nationals. Moroknek led the team in hits (81), batting average (.372), total bases (153), RBIs (57), home runs (18), runs scored (57), slugging percentage (.702) and OPS (1.145) while posting one of the best individual seasons in Butler history. Moroknek was the first Bulldog drafted since Ryan Pepiot was taken in the third round of the 2019 MLB Draft.
• Head Coach Blake Beemer enters his fourth season at the helm of the Bulldogs. Beemer helped coach back-to-back BIG EAST Freshman of the Year winners Joey Urban (2023) and Kade Lewis (2024) in his first two seasons with the Bulldogs. Beemer played a pivotal role in developing Jack Moroknek who earned All-BIG EAST second team honors a season ago before being selected by the Washington Nationals in the 2025 MLB Draft.

 
SCOUTING MURRAY STATE

• Murray State enters the series with a 2-2 record. The Racers took two out of three against Ohio in the opening series of the season before dropping a midweek contest to North Alabama 15-5 on Wednesday afternoon.
• Luke Mistone has started all four games for the Racers and is slashing .474/.524/.579 at the fish. Mistone has accumulated nine hits, two doubles and seven RBIs for Murray State.
• On the mound, Nic Schutte boasts a 1-0 record and a 4.50 ERA for the Racers. Schutte tossed 4.0 innings against Ohio and struck out four in the contest en route to his first win of the season.

 
UP NEXT
Butler will be back in action next weekend as the Dawgs travel to Huntington, West Virginia, to take on Marshall in a three-game series. Game one is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 27 with first pitch coming at 3 p.m. More information will be made available on Butlersports.com.