For just the third time this season and first time in the last three weeks, the Butler Baseball team took the field and picked up a good non-conference road win 12-2 over No. 8 ranked Northern Oklahoma College- Enid.
After giving up a solo homerun in the first inning to the Jets, Zach Chiolis settled in and threw scoreless innings in the second and third and the Butler pin came in and did a great job holding the Jets at bay giving up just five total hits in the contest.
The Grizzly bats came alive in the second inning as they scored three runs off a Bryce Zimmerer base clearing double. After a scoreless first inning, Butler plated runs in each of their next six innings outscoring the Jets 12-1 through the final six innings to pick up the victory.
Zach Chiolis picked up his first win of the season as he was scheduled to only throw three innings in the contest. He allowed one run off two hits gave up one walk and struck out four.
Bryce Zimmerer went 2-3 with three RBI's and two runs scored. Johnathan Contreras went 2-3 from his DH position and had an RBI with a run scored. Jonah Cox was 2-4 at the plate with three runs scored and an RBI. Jackson Syring had the lone homerun of the game for Butler hitting a solo shot on the first pitch in the top of the 4th inning.
"We competed well with two strikes today," said head coach BJ McVay. "I was happy with how we played considering the almost three-week break in games."
Butler (2-1, 0-0) will open up conference play tomorrow on the road at Garden City with just three games under their belt. Last season the Grizzlies were 14-3, 2-2 at this time last year with conference play starting. They might seem behind in games played but head coach BJ McVay feels they are in a good spot.
"We haven't played as many games as we have in the past, but we have had good practice time to get our guys in a position to be successful on the field," mentioned McVay. "That was put on display today even after having a three week gap in games."
NEXT UP: Butler (2-1, 0-0) will open up KJCCC West play on Thursday, March 11 on the road at Garden City with the first pitch at 1:00pm. They will play all four games of the series in Garden City due to the impending inclement weather forecasted for El Dorado over the weekend. Butler will play games three and four of the four game set on Friday, March 12 at 11:00am and 1:00pm in Garden City.
"Conference is always tough,". "Playing all four games out there due to weather isn't ideal, but we need to play games," commented McVay.
