JOE HASENSTAB | Staff Reporter
The Butler baseball team has a game today at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis against Indiana State. The game starts at 3 p.m., and tickets will sell for $5.
The Bulldogs (16-22, 4-5) are going into the game coming off a series win against Xavier. They .will face a Sycamore team with 25 wins.
Butler will also look ahead to its next Big East series this weekend, when the team heads to Omaha to take on Creighton.
The Bulldogs will look to grab wins against conference opponents, something that hasn’t proven to be easy so far this season.
Junior Austin Miller said he believes part of the team’s struggle is based on inconsistency on the road.
“We play at home really well, and when it comes to road games we’re struggling a little bit,” Miller said. “I think it’s basically intensity and guys stepping up and doing things that they don’t normally do.”
Butler’s record shows the Bulldogs are a different team at home versus on the road. Of the team’s 16 wins this year, 12 have come at home. Conversely, the Bulldogs are just 1-12 on the road. Today’s game will be at a neutral site and the team is 3-5 in such games.
Butler’s hitting and pitching were both firing on all cylinders during its 8-0 win over Xavier on Thursday.
Senior Gunner Johnson hurled eight shutout innings. Miller said if they can get outings like this more often, the team will have success.
“We’ve just been a little inconsistent all year,” Miller said. “We haven’t had the pitching when we need it and we only had the hitting, or when we only had the pitching we didn’t have the hitting. So basically what I’m thinking is going to help us a lot is to get consistency from both sides.”
The team will get the chance to win its first road series of the season in TD Ameritrade Park. This is Creighton’s home field and also the site where the College World Series is held every year.
Miller said playing at Ameritrade Park will be something the team can check off of its bucket list, but that the Bulldogs won’t let the setting distract them from their goal.
“When it comes to Friday, Saturday and Sunday it’s basically a business trip, and we’re there for wins,” Miller said.
