BUTLER TWP — Butler’s Cade Negley pitched well enough to win.

But Pine-Richland’s Ryan Okuda pitched nearly perfectly.

The Rams’ senior left-hander — headed to Virginia Tech next year — faced just two batters over the minimum, allowed two hits and three baserunners in shutting out the Golden Tornado, 1-0, Wednesday night at Kelly Automotive Park.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Butler (8-5, 2-4). The Tornado have been blanked in all four of their section losses.

“He’s just a great pitcher,” Butler coach Todd Erdos said of Okuda. “His arm angle when he throws is such that he never elevates a pitch unless he wants to. He keeps everything down.

“His slider cuts away from right-hand hitters and he keeps you honest with a good inside fastball. We couldn’t get anything going against him tonight.”

Butler got one runner to second base all night. Isaiah Lucas singled to center with one out in the second inning and was bunted to second by Alec Bayer. Lucas was picked off second to end the threat.

The Tornado’s only other hit was a one-out single by Dallas Hays in the first. Lucas walked with one out in the fifth.

Okuda threw only 77 pitches Wednesday — 55 for strikes.

“Honestly, this was a typical game for Ryan,” Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe said. “He may hit 90 pitches at times, but not often. He attacks hitters.”

Okuda has surrendered just one total run in five starts this season. His earned run average was below 1.00 last year as well and he hasn’t lost a game in two seasons.

A couple of major league scouts were looking at him Wednesday.

“He’s drawing more and more attention that way,” Wolfe said. “Ryan throws once a week ... every Wednesday, that’s it.”

The Rams (12-2, 6-0) scored the game’s only run in the first inning. Joey Bolick greeted Negley with a single to right and stole second. He scored on Matt Wood’s single to right.

While Okuda struck out eight, Negley was solid in his own right. The Tornado right-hander fanned seven and stranded four Pine-Richland runners at third base while tossing a complete game. Negley threw 102 pitches.

“Cade did what he needed to do to keep us in this ballgame,” Erdos said. “He was outstanding.”

Pine-Richland put runners on second and third with one out in the first inning after taking the lead. But Negley struck out Craig Kunkel and got Tyler Woodrow to ground out to second to escape further damage.

“That first inning could have gotten away from us. Cade didn’t let that happen,” Erdos said.

Negley stranded a two-out triple by Josh Johnson in the second. He fanned Johnson with runners at second and third and two out in the fourth. With a runner at third and one out in the sixth, Negley struck out Woodrow and retired Hunter Treece on a grounder to second.

“We know how good Butler’s pitching is and Negley did a great job on us,” Wolfe said. “But, fundamentally, we missed three or four bunts. We had opportunities to score two or three more runs and didn’t get it done.”

Butler travels to Shaler for a key section game Friday.

“Every section game is big for us at this point,” Erdos said.

Pine-Richland 100 000 0 — 1 5 0

Butler 000 000 0 — 0 2 1

W:Ryan Okuda 7IP (8K, 1BB). L: Cade Negley 7IP (7K, 2BB).

Pine-Richland (12-2, 6-0): Joey Bolick 1B, Matt Wood 1B RBI, Jacob Maggi 1B, Craig Kunkel 1B, Josh Johnson 3B

Butler (8-5, 2-4): Dallas Hays 1B, Isaiah Lucas 1B

Friday: Butler at Shaler