LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The ride isn't over yet. But Cody Herald has enjoyed it so far.

The Butler BlueSox manager has selected Pavin Parks to start on the mound for Game 1 of the best-of-three Prospect League Championship Series at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Lafayette.

“It's hard to look back on the season when we still have games in front of us,” Herald said. “But this is such a surreal feeling. It's been so much fun.

“The players have made it fun.”

After posting the leaguer's best regular season record at 37-23, the BlueSox swept West Virginia in the semifinals. They defeated the Miners 5-4 and 6-5.

Now the Aviators stand between them and the first Prospect League title in the nine-year history of the Butler franchise.

“(Lafayette) is a really good team. They don't make many mistakes,” Herald said. “They try to play as clean a game as possible and just beat you — plus, they can hit the ball.

“We've got to stay with them in terms of quality play all the way through — good defense, pitching and hitting.”

Parks, a Kent State University pitcher, is 4-1 on the season with a 2.21 earned run average. He has 26 strikeouts and 14 walks in 40.2 innings pitched this summer.

Herald said Knoch graduate and Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College pitcher Alex Stobert will start Game 2 at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Kelly Automotive Park. Stobert is 4-1 with a 2.07 ERA, 23 strikeouts and 14 walks in 34.2 innings pitched.

Seneca Valley graduate and Virginia Tech pitcher Connor Coward was 4-1 with a 2.96 ERA, 42 strikeouts and only five walks this season. He threw 30 innings for the BlueSox, but has been shut down for the summer.

“We knew what we were getting when Connor rejoined us,” Herald said. “Give him the ball and we were 99 percent sure we were gonna win that game.

“Alex Stobert has turned into that type of pitcher for us as well and Pavin always gives us a solid outing.”

The development of the bullpen has been a key to the starting pitching success as well, Herald said.

“Early in the season, we didn't have much relief pitching and our starters tried to do too much as a result,” he pointed out.”Once we developed a structured, dependable corps of relief guys, our starters felt comfortable giving what they had, then turning the ball over to those guys.”

Butler graduate Wyatt Daughetty (2-1, 3 saves, 2.07 ERA_ has 22 strikeouts and only six walks in 17.1 innings pitched. Derek West, Ty Black and Jamie Switalski have been effective out of the bullpen as well.

Offensively, the BlueSox set team records this season with 120 doubles and 46 home runs. James Meeker is hitting .357 and Tanner Murphy .330 as regulars in the lineup. Murphy has 16 doubles and six home runs.

Parks is hitting .296, Ben Carew .294 and Patrick Ferguson has a club-record 15 home runs, though he's hitting only .216.

The BlueSox have had 12 different players hit home runs and 16 players steal a base. Calvin Scott has a team-record 29 steals while Murphy has pilfered 22 bags.

“We knew we'd be able to hit the ball,” Herald said. “Our hitters have done a good job of keeping us in ballgames.

“Basically, we had a bunch of players show up here who saw they had a manager only a little bit older than they were. They could have tried to take advantage of that situation, but they didn't.

“(Pitching coach) Josh (Forbes) and I told them we were here to have fun, but we were here to win games, too. Fortunately, we've been able to do both.”

Game 3 of the finals, if necessary, will be played at 4:05 p.m. Sunday at Kelly Automotive Park. Either Josh LaPiana ((3-1, 3.60) or Nick Bucci (5-2, 3.62) would pitch for Butler.

“No matter how this turns out, I'm glad we get to finish in front of our home crowd, people who have been with us all season,” Herald said. “We would love to win it for them.”