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May 24, 2006
Late-Inning Rally Lifts Butler Past YSU in Opening Round
Fairborn, Ohio -- Butler rallied
from a three-run deficit with three
runs in the eighth inning and two in
the 10th to defeat Youngstown State
5-3 in the opening round of the
Horizon League Championship on
Wednesday afternoon at Nischwitz
Field.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs advance to play either top-seeded
UIC or No. 2 UW-Milwaukee tomorrow
in the winners' bracket while the
fourth-seeded Penguins will play an
elimination game at 11 a.m. against
the loser of Wright State and
Cleveland State.
Joe Dempsey hit a game-tying two-run home run in the eighth
and drove in the eventual
game-winning run in the 10th for the
Bulldogs. The Butler rally spoiled a
strong outing from sophomore starter
Lucas Engle, who allowed two runs on
six hits and struck out seven in 7
1/3 innings before yielding to Ryan
Sellman.
Jon Dages held YSU to four hits and struck out five in five
shutout innings in relief of Bryan
Bokowy to earn his third win.
The Penguins jumped on top early in the first with two runs
on one hit. J.D. Hannan was hit by a
Bokowy pitch to start the inning and
advanced when John Koehnlein beat
out a bunt. Brandon Caipen then
sacrificed the runners to second and
third, and Erich Diedrich ripped a
two-run single down the right field
line to pick up his 57th and 58th
RBIs of the season.
YSU added one more run in the fifth when Charles Schultz hit
a leadoff single and scored when
Justin Banks drew a bases loaded
walk. Dages took over in the sixth
and was greeted with three straight
singles, but Dempsey gunned down
Josh Page on an attempted steal
after his leadoff single and Dages
forced an inning-ending double play
to escape. The Butler reliever went
on to retire the next seven hitters
and allowed only a single to Schultz
in the ninth the rest of the way.
Engle allowed three hits in the first two innings but did not
surrender another base knock until
Butler started the eighth with three
straight hits. Mike Stout doubled in
Stephen Gill with one out to get
Butler within two and force Engle
out of the game. Sellman got cleanup
hitter Jeff Brown to ground out to
short for the second out, but
Dempsey hit a 1-1 offering over the
wall in left to tie the score.
Dempsey then singled in Nate Hart with the go-ahead run in
the 10th and scored on Joel
Matheny's single that made it 5-3.
Sellman was charged with his first loss of the season,
allowing three runs on six hits in 2
2/3 innings. Butler had three hits
in the first seven innings and nine
in the final three fram
Schultz finished with three hits to lead YSU while Gill,
Dempsey, Matheny and Kyle Cox all
had two hits apiece in Butler's
12-hit attack.
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