BlueSox score weekend sweep
Butler’s Prospect League baseball team brought out the brooms over the weekend in Kokomo, Ind.
The BlueSox swept the Jackrabbits by scores of 5-3 on Saturday and 10-6 on Sunday.
Butler found itself down 4-1 after five innings Sunday, but the team’s potent lineup came to life in the sixth.
Rey Gonzalez sparked a five-run inning with a bases-clearing triple. The Sox added three more runs in the seventh.
Shortstop James Meeker went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Teammates Tanner Murphy, Calvin Scott, Ben Carew and Gonzalez each contributed two hits.
The Jackrabbits (9-14) chased Butler starter Mike Klingensmith from the mound after 3 1/3 innings pitched. He allowed four runs on five hits.
Reliever Pavin Parks surrendered a pair of runs on three hits in 4 2/3 innings, but settled things down enough to get the win.
Seneca Valley graduate Connor Coward worked a scoreless ninth frame to close the game.
In Saturday’s win, the BlueSox scored all the runs they would need in a four-run fifth frame.
Damian Maglione and Joe Gunn both hit run-scoring doubles in the inning while Patrick Ferguson and Murphy contributed RBI-singles.
Murphy followed with a solo home run to lead off the eighth.
Kokomo scored its three runs in the bottom of the fifth, cutting the BlueSox lead to 4-3.
But Butler starting pitcher Jake Stout pitched a scoreless sixth, followed by one scoreless inning of relief from three pitchers — Bryce Spak, Jack Herzing and Meeker, who was credited with a save.
Stout earned the win after allowing three runs (two earned) on 10 hits. He struck out five and walked one in his six innings of work.
The BlueSox (11-11) return to action Tuesday at West Virginia.