At 5-foot-11, 160 pounds, Austin Sherry is not an imposing figure on the mound.

The left-hander loomed large for the West Virginia Miners Thursday night at Kelly Automotive Park, however. He tossed a rare Prospect League complete game in shutting out the Butler BlueSox, 2-0, on Butler Eagle Night at the ballpark.

The loss snapped an eight-game home winning streak for the BlueSox, who hold a game lead in the Eastern Division with 14 games to play.

The BlueSox did win the completion of a suspended game earlier in the evening, 4-3, in 13 innings.

But Sherry, who entered the night 0-3 with a 5.40 earned run average, took over from there.

“He had our hitters off-balance all night. I don't think he ever threw the same pitch at the same speed twice in a row,” BlueSox manager Cody Herald said.

Sherry's four-hitter spoiled a stellar outing by Knoch graduate Alex Stobert, who allowed only an unearned run on one hit in seven innings. Stobert threw 100 pitches.

“I felt like I was in command out there and that always feels good,” Stobert said. “But, hey, hats off to their guy. He pitched a heck of a game.

“I've pitched other games not as well, but had plenty of run support. Tonight it went the other way. That's how this game is. Come back out and go get them tomorrow.”

The Miners' lone run off Stobert crossed the plate in the fifth inning. Matt DiLeo reached on an infield error with two outs. No. 9 hitter Eddy Gonzalez tried bunting for a hit and the ball was thrown away, enabling DiLeo to scamper to third.

DiLeo scored on a passed ball.

The Miners nearly scored in the second inning, but BlueSox center fielder Stefan Mrkonja threw out John Hagan trying to score on a fly out.

That 1-0 score stood until the ninth inning, when Dan Ward hit a towering home run off the scoreboard in center field against Sox reliever Wyatt Daugherty.

The BlueSox did have three chances to score against Sherry, but were denied. A one-out double by Rey Gonzalez was stranded in the second inning. The Sox loaded the bases with none out in the fifth, but Damian Maglione popped to first and Ben Carew lined into a double play.

Tanner Murphy tripled to left to begin the ninth — extending his hitting streak to 11 games — but Sherry struck out the next two hitters and got Mrjkonja to fly out to right to end the game.

Sherry threw 108 pitches, 75 for strikes. He struck out 11.

“He found his rhythm and timing early in this game and never lost it,” Miners manager Tim Epling said. “Austin has been a short inning reliever and we've been stretching him out all summer.

“You don't see complete games in this league because of its pitch count rule. If a guy's thrown 90 pitches through eight, he has to come out. Austin was at 88, so we let him go.”

The BlueSox and Miners play again tonight.

“This is one game,” Herald said. “The beauty of baseball is you wake up the next day and go play again.

“We were a little tired in that game. The suspended game went longer than we wanted it to go.”

Play resumed in the suspended game from June with the BlueSox batting in the 10th inning of a 3-3 contest. The winning run didn't score until the 13th.

Maglione's sacrifice fly plated James Meeker with the bases loaded to end the contest.

“They think I'm a weak hitter and they came right at me,” Maglione said. “I was looking fir a first-pitch fastball I could hit to the outfield and I got one.”

Butler graduate Mark Gross pitched three scoreless innings to get the victory.

“I'll take the cheap win,” Gross said, smiling. “You have to approach a game like this as if you're coming in from the bullpen. You don't know what to expect.”

Notes: Butler Eagle employee Tom Harrison sang the national anthem. ... Youngsters Jonathan Senge and Paige Cihonski threw out ceremonial first pitches. ... The Mars 8-under travel baseball team took the field with BlueSox players during the pre-game introductions. The team won the 16-team Deer Lakes Tournament this week. Mars players included Braden Schmitt, Ryan Kuremsky, Jackson Geiger, Gabe Hein, Brett Kelly, Landon Hein, Joseph Shebek, Casey Klinefelter, Josh Bostedo and Brady Wilson.

West Virginia 000 010 001 — 2 4 2

Butler 000 000 000 — 0 4 3

W: Austin Sherry 9IP (11K, 2BB). L: Alex Stobert 7IP (5K, 4BB).

West Virginia (24-20): Austin Norman 1B, Dan Ward HR, Matt DiLeo 1B, Colby Johnson 1B

Butler (26-20): Patrick Ferguson 1B, Tanner Murphy 3B, Rey Gonzalez 2B, Stefan Mrkonja 1B

Today: West Virginia at Butler, 7:05 p.m.