Butler baseball wins opener, 8-3

Butler baseball wins opener, 8-3
Tornado get 11 hits against Ellwood City

Not bad for openers.
Three Butler pitchers scattered eight hits Saturday and Cody Herald contributed three hits offensively as the Golden Tornado baseball team opened its season with an 8-3 win over Ellwood City at Pullman Park.
"We wanted to get a lot of kids in the game and planned to use three pitchers," Butler coach Dave Florie said. "All three of our pitchers threw strikes. That was the big thing.
"The old adage is throw strikes and change speeds. We did that today."
Zach Sessa tossed three scoreless innings for Butler, throwing only 31 pitches. He retired the side in the second inning on just five pitches.
Sessa stranded a runner in scoring position in each of his three innings. C.J. Miller allowed a run in two innings and Tyler Slepski was nicked for a couple of runs in the final two frames.
Conversely, Ellwood City hurlers issued eight walks in the first four innings. Four of those runners scored.
"We walked eight guys, they walked one. We threw 127 pitches, they threw 87," Wolverines coach Jeff Fotia said. "There's your difference in the game.
"We had one bad inning. But one bad inning can decide a lot of baseball games."
The Tornado scored twice in the first frame. Mick Fennell walked to open the inning and Herald tripled over the center fielder's head. Herald scored on John Crummy's infield hit.
Ellwod City starting pitcher Anthony Carusone was pulled after only two batters and 10 pitches.
"He said his arm felt sore and we weren't taking any chances," Fotia said.
"We saw their three best pitchers today and put the bat on the ball consistently, hit a lot of balls hard," Florie said.
Butler broke the game open with a six-run fourth inning. Herald had a RBI double and Bobby Swartwout a two-run single to highlight the frame.
Herald contributed a single, double, triple, two RBI and two runs scored to Butler's 11-hit attack. Eight other Tornado players had one hit each.
"We don't have to change a thing when it comes to Cody at the plate," Florie said. "Just keep the same approach. That kid knows how to hit.
We'll use these exhibition (non-section) games to look at a lot of players and sort things out."
Class AA Ellwood City had opened the season with a 12-2 win Friday over Rochester.
"Our staff is together for the first time and we're moving one step at a time," Fotia said. "I did see a lot of things I liked out there today."

Ellwood City 000 011 1 — 3 8 1
Butler 200 060 x — 8 11 1
W: Zach Sessa 3 IP (0 K, 1 BB). L: Anthony Carusone 0 IP (0 K, 1 BB).
Ellwood City (1-1): Matt Germanoski 1B, Gino Ceriani 2-1B, Greg Lynn 2-1B RBI, Ryan Durbaum 2-1B, Matt Morella RBI, Christian Kerns 2B
Butler (1-0): Mick Fennell 1B 2-R, Cody Herald 1B 2B 3B 2-RBI 2-R, John Crummy 1B RBI, Colin Williamson 1B, Tyler Slepski RBI, Roman Bargo 1B RBI, Nathan Bresnahan 1B, Bobby Swartwout 1B 2-RBI, Mike Hartman 1B RBI, Zach Sessa 1B