BUTLER TWP — Cade Negley has used baseball to see much of the country.

Next year, the Butler senior pitcher will use it to travel across the country.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound right-hander has verbally agreed to continue his academic and baseball career at Santa Clara University in California. Negley will formally sign his letter of intent in November.

“People I've talked to have told me that when you visit that certain college, you'll know it's for you,” Negley said. “I felt that way as soon as I went out there.”

Negley was 7-1 with a 1.50 earned run average for the Golden Tornado last spring, piling up 45 strikeouts in 40 innings. He pitched for the Indiana Prospects, a travel team based in Indianapolis, during the summer.

“I've been playing travel ball since I was 9,” Negley said. “In the past eight years, I've played baseball in 21 states. Last summer, we played in Florida, Michigan, South Carolina ... all over.

“We played in eight tournaments and I started a game in every one of them.”

Negley went 6-2 in those tournament games “against a level of competition that's as good as anywhere,” he said.

Santa Clara competes in the West Coast Conference and is coming off a 23-29 season. The Broncos defeated five teams that reached the NCAA Tournament — including No. 24 Notre Dame and No. 14 Michigan — and had pitcher Mitchell White drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Dan O'Brien has been Santa Clara's head coach for six years. Gabe Ribas is the Broncos' pitching coach.

“The coaches impressed me,” Negley said. “Coach Ribas asked me what my goals were and I told him I want to pitch in the big leagues. He said: 'My goal is to get you there.'

“I'm excited about getting out there to start working on that.”

Negley throws a fastball routinely clocked at 88 miles per hour to go with a changeup and stellar curve ball. He refers to his curve as his “out” pitch.

“Cade has the frame and he still has room to grow,” Butler baseball coach Todd Erdos said. “He's got three good pitches, a tremendous breaking ball.

“He made a good choice. They'll develop him out there. I can see him getting drafted down the road. The potential is definitely there.”

Negley said Santa Clara gets “a couple of pitchers drafted almost every year.”

White was the highest draft pick out of Santa Clara since Randy Winn went to the Florida Marlins in Round 3 in 1995.

Erdos has pitched in the major leagues with the Yankees and Butler boys basketball coach Matt Clement — a longtime big league pitcher — helps out with the Golden Tornado hurlers.

“They are baseball guys and they've taught me how to come at the batters,” Negley said. “They've shown me how to work with and use the count. I listen to everything they have to say.”

Erdos praised Negley for being willing to “listen and grow” as a pitcher.

Negley also considered Morehead State, Penn State, Pitt and Kent State before deciding on Santa Clara.

“My goal since I was a little kid has been to play Major League Baseball,” he said. “I believe this is a big step in that direction.”

Negley expects to enter the School of Business at Santa Clara.