EL DORADO, Kan. – The Butler baseball team won a pair of one-run games to sweep a conference doubleheader from Barton, moving them into first place in the conference in the process.
Butler won the first game 2-1 in eight innings, then held off Barton 3-2 to win the second game. The Grizzlies are now 13-7 overall and 5-1 in Jayhawk West Conference play. Butler leads second-place Hutchinson by one game, as the Blue Dragons fell to 4-2 after being swept on Saturday at Seward.
Butler will finish the series with Barton with another doubleheader on Sunday at 1 p.m. at McDonald Stadium.
GAME 1 - Butler 2, Barton 1
Butler got a walk-off double from Ty Redington in the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing Channing Williams to score from first as Butler won 2-1.
Redington drove in both Butler runs. He had a sacrifice bunt in the third inning to score Alex Weiss. That run gave Butler a 1-0 lead in the game.
Barton answered with a run in the top of the sixth, when starting pitcher Corbin Osburn fielded a bunt and threw the ball wide of first base, allowing a runner from second to score.
The game was originally schedule to last just seven innings, but with the score tied after seven, the game went an extra inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Williams reached on a walk and scored on the double by Redington that hit in fair territory down the right field line and rolled away from the fielder.
Osburn went the distance to get the win for Butler, allowing just one unearned run on three hits. He walked five and struck out five as he improved to 5-0 on the season for Butler.
GAME 2 - Butler 3, Barton 2
Because the first game went extra innings, the second game went from being a scheduled nine-inning game to a seven-inning contest. That helped Butler get another complete-game pitching performance, this one from Austin Dubsky.
The sophomore scattered seven hits and two walks, allowing just one earned run while striking out four. He also used the help of his defense to get out of jams in the fourth and six innings.
Meanwhile, the Butler offense scored quickly, getting a run in the bottom of the first when Ty Redington led off with a single and later scored on an RBI groundout to short by Zach Baker.
Barton tied the game in the fourth and still had the bases loaded before Butler got a double play to end the inning on a ground ball back to Dubsky.
Butler promptly regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth when Zach Baker hit a solo home run to right field.
The Grizzlies added a much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the fifth when Jake Huscroft singled to score Channing Williams from second.
Barton got one run in the top of the sixth, aided in part by two Butler errors, but Dubsky threw a scoreless top of the seventh to finish the game.
