Frozen out
Butler's bats were kept in a deep freeze Friday night and it had nothing to do with the chilly temperatures.
North Allegheny senior pitcher Jake Fischbaugh limited the Golden Tornado to just five hits — all singles — as the Tigers opened Section 1-AAAA play with a 5-0 victory at Kelly Automotive Park.
“This is the second straight year that Jake opened section play for us with a shutout,” said Tiger coach Andy Maddix. “Last year, it came against Moon and this year against what we believe to be a very good Butler team.”
The Tornado's best chance to score came in the bottom of the third inning. Jarett Lyon and Alec Bayer both managed one-out singles. With two outs, Dallas Hays reached on an infield single, but on the play, Lyon rounded third base a bit too far and was tagged out to end the inning.
“The umpire said the third baseman (Alex Mesaros) tagged Jarett on his way back to the bag,” said Butler coach Todd Erdos. “I saw his glove and it didn't look to me like he made the tag.”
Butler stranded five runners on base, four of them at second base.
The Tornado had their potential first run at second base in the fourth, fifth and sixth inning, but Fischbaugh struck out Brandon Hilderbrand and Nathan Kibbie and got Jefferson Ford to ground out, respectively, to end the threats.
“For Jake to come out and set the tone, throwing strikes like he did, that was big,” Maddix said. “He was able to make big pitches when Butler had runners in scoring position.”
Butler (4-1, 0-1) had scored a total of 31 runs in its first four games.
“We weren't as aggressive at the plate as we had been. We were too tentative,” Erdos said. “Fischbaugh pitched a great game. He completely took control. Before our guys knew it, a lot of them were looking at 0-2 or 1-2 counts.”
Fischbaugh's counterpart, Butler's Cade Negley, shouldered the loss after allowing five runs on eight hits in seven innings. He struck out three and walked three.
Butler's deficit was 3-0 after six innings before Negley surrendered RBI-singles to Mesaros and Ben Marsico in the seventh.
“Cade didn't have his best stuff tonight, but he battled,” said Erdos. “He kept us in the game and we had every opportunity to score a few runs.”
Tiger designated hitter Bobby Brown drove in his team's first three runs. His sacrifice fly in the top of the second inning scored Jack Lehew. Brown then drove in two more with a base hit in the fourth frame.
“Those were two great at-bats,” Maddix said. “Negley is a very good pitcher, but we were able to string out the at-bats, foul pitches off and get the key hits.”
North Allegheny 010 200 2 — 5 8 0
Butler 000 000 0 — 0 5 1
W: Jake Fischbaugh 7 IP (K, 1BB). L: Cade Negley 7 IP (3K, 3BB).
North Allegheny (4-1, 1-0): Alex Mesaros 1B RBI, Keegan Phillips 1B R, Ben Marsico 1B RBI, Blake Young 1B R, Jon Dignazio 1B, Dan McCauley 1B, Bobby Brown 1B 3RBI, Jake Fischbaugh 2B, Jack Lehew 2R, John Kenna R
Butler (4-1, 0-1): Dallas Hays 1B, Cade Negley 1B, Connor Ollio 1B, Jarett Lyon 1B, Alec Bayer 1B
Monday: Butler at North Hills
