Story by Wyatt Ebersole
Behind the pitching of starter Izack Tiger, the 3rd seeded Butler Baseball team opened the Region VI Championships with a win over the 6th seeded Fort Scott Greyhounds. The win for the Grizzlies moves them into the winner's bracket of the tournament and improves their record to 39-21 on the year.
After a scoreless first, Brock Toothaker opened the scoring in the second inning with an RBI single to right field to make it 1-0 Grizzlies. After loading the bases later in the inning, Garrett Fager was hit by a pitch to bring in another run and double the Grizzly lead to 2-0 after two innings. The Greyhounds brought a run home in the third to cut into the lead and threatened to tie the game up in the fourth after getting two runners on with no outs, but Tiger struck out two and induced a groundout to keep Fort Scott off the board in the inning. The Grizzlies then got two runners of their own on in the bottom of the fourth and Cole Murrell came home to score on a balk, but that was all the Grizzlies managed. The Hounds found another answer in the top of the fifth, hitting a solo homer to pull back within a run, 3-2. Both sides threatened in the sixth and seventh innings, but both pitchers held firm, keeping the score still 3-2 after seven innings. Fort Scott again threatened in the eighth, working a runner to third, but Tiger would get of the inning unscathed. The Grizzlies could not add any insurance runs in their half of the eighth, so Tiger returned to the mound in the ninth still clinging to just a one run lead. That was all he needed to get the job done, as he set the Greyhounds down in order to give the Grizzlies the 3-2 win over Fort Scott in the second round of the playoffs.
Tiger dominated on the mound, throwing all nine innings, allowing just two runs on five hits, while striking out 15 Fort Scott batters.
With the win, the Grizzlies move into the winner's bracket of the tournament and will play the winner of today's Seward vs Johnson County game tomorrow at 4PM at Eck Stadium in Wichita.
