Butler University Athletics

Bladen Bales joined the Butler baseball program as an assistant coach in July of 2022. Prior to the 2024 season, Bales was promoted as a full-time coach and recruiting coordinator for the Bulldogs.
 
Bales has helped Butler recruit the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in back-to-back seasons. Joey Urban earned the honor in 2023 and Kade Lewis was the recipient in 2024. The Bulldog offense flourished in 2024 setting single-season school records in home runs (62) and total bases (856).
 
Carter Dorighi set the school’s single-season hit record with 90 in 2024. He tied the single-game school record with six hits at Morehead State and BU outfielder Jack Moroknek tied the single-game home run record with three in a win at Eastern Michigan. 

Before arriving on campus, Bales coached with Blake Beemer at Ball State during the 2022 season. While with the Cardinals, Bales worked as the outfield coach and assisted with the hitters.
 
Bales helped Ball State reach the Mid-American Conference Championship game in 2022. The Cardinals won the MAC regular season title and were just the third team in program history to reach 40 wins in a season (40-19). BSU hit .295 as a team with four every day starters batting over .300. The Cardinals ranked second in the MAC in hits (566) and third in home runs (69).
 
Zach Cole and Amir Wright were standout student-athletes in the outfield for BSU in 2022. Bales saw Cole receive First Team All-MAC honors, while Wright landed on the All-MAC Second Team. Cole led the Cardinals with a .361 batting average. He hit fifth in the order and set a new program record with nine triples in 2022. Wright led-off for Ball State and roamed centerfield defensively. He hit .350 a year ago and only struck out 14 times in 209 at-bats. Wright reached base safely in 53 of 55 games and never made an error in the field.
 
Bales traveled to Muncie after a four-year stint as the top assistant coach for Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska. During his time with Northeast, he served as the Hawks’ hitting coach, infield coach, and recruiting coordinator. Bales was an instrumental piece in helping start the program in 2017 and guiding the Hawks to their first-ever NJCAA DII World Series appearance in 2019. He also helped over 20 student-athletes sign with four-year schools, led by former NJCAA DII Baseball Player of the Year, NJCAA All-American and current Milwaukee Brewer infielder Drew Smith.
 
Under Bales' guidance, the Hawks hit .312 as a team in 2021 and crushed 47 home runs, while recording a .407 on-base percentage and a .471 slugging percentage.  At the helm of the hitters in 2019, Northeast held a .299 team average, bashing 56 home runs, and getting on base at a .402 clip with a .469 slugging percentage.
 
Prior to his time at Northeast, Bales coached high school baseball where he took over the Nebraska City Junior Legion program. In his first stint as head coach, he took the Juniors to the Nebraska State Tournament while posting a regular season record of 27-2. Coach Bales also helped lead the Nebraska City Seniors team to a state tournament runner-up finish in 2017.
 
Bales played collegiately at McCook Community College, where he posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage as an outfielder. After finishing his Associate’s degree, Bales transferred to play and continue his education at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. A native of Nebraska City, Neb., Bales graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in General Studies from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 2019.