Sorting
out victories
Butler
baseball wins while tweaking lineup
Butler varsity baseball coach Dave Florie is still sorting things out.
Winning just happens to be coming along for the ride.
The Golden Tornado used a four-run second inning and solid pitching from Joe
Marak and Bobby Swartwout to defeat Riverside, 5-1, Saturday at Pullman Park.
Butler improved to 4-1 with the victory.
"I'll take the wins, but that's not the emphasis right now,"Florie
said. "After each game, I ask the kids about, pitching, defense and timely
hitting. How'd we do? That's what's important.
"I'm still sorting out our pitching. I'm still sorting out
everything."
Butler has two more "preseason" games — against Mount Lebanon today
at Pullman Park and at Ellwood City Wednesday — before opening section play at
North Hills Friday.
Marak worked the first four innings Saturday, allowing three hits and no runs
while throwing only 49 pitches. He threw 33 strikes.
"That's very, very good,"Florie said of the pitch count. "He
wasn't wasting anything."
Swartwout threw 54 pitches over the final three frames, working out of trouble
twice. He struck out leadoff batter Justin McCanna with runners at second and
third and one out in the fifth, then allowed an infield single to Jake Thellman
to plate Riverside's only run.
Riverside's first two batters reached base in the sixth, but Swartwout retired
the next three.
McCanna is one of five returning senior starters for the Panthers (0-3), who
were 13-7 last year. Another senior, Shane Rusnock, had three singles and
scored his team's only run.
Riverside won the PIAAClass AAchampionship in 2005 and 2006.
"We have a strange roster this year with the five seniors, one junior, and
everyone else being sophomores," longtime Riverside coach Dan Oliastro
said. "I thought we could come in here and be competitive with Butler. We
left too many runners on base."
Oliastro is in his 41st year of coaching baseball at Riverside.
Riverside outhit the Tornado 8-5, but stranded eight runners, including two
each in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
"That team can hit the ball,"Florie said. "We have to play good
defense because we're not going to strike out a bunch of guys."
Butler played errorless baseball Saturday.
Riverside dropped a 3-1 decision to Ambridge and lost 14-4 to Hopewell before
taking on Butler.
"We've played a Quad-A team and two Triple-A teams so far," Oliastro
said. "We're going to be fine. We expect to be in the playoffs
again."
Two-run singles by Roman Bargo and Cody Herald highlighted the Tornado's
four-run second frame. Herald's hit — a grounder through the middle — occurred
with two outs.
"We scored seven runs with two outs against Knoch (Friday)," Florie
said. "You want those two-out hits."
Butler's other run crossed the plate in the fourth. David Schmidt walked, stole
second and scored on an errant throw.
Bargo doubled and singled while Dustin Uhlman contributed two singles for
Butler. The Tornado used a 13-batter lineup, a common practice of Florie's in
non-section games.
Riverside 000 010 0—1 8 2
Butler 040 100 x—5 5 0
WP: Joe Marak (4 IP) 2 strikeouts, 1 walk. LP: Nick Wisor (2 IP) 1
strikeout, 1 walk
Riversde (0-3): Jake Thellman 1B RBI, Kenny Wiley 1B, Tyler Moser 1B,
Nick Wisor 1B, Shane Rusnock 3-1B, Zach Gallaher 1B
Butler (4-1): Dustin Uhlman 2-1B, Roman Bargo 1B 2B 2-RBI, Cody Herald
1B 2-RBI