Let the games begin
Ticket sales for the Butler BlueSox's Prospect League season opener Thursday night at Pullman Park have been steady.
The walk-up sales might not equal that of a typical home game, however.
"Generally, we're expecting 200 or so walk-up sales on a nice summer evening," BlueSox majority owner Leo Trich said. "When you're dealing with weather, you're always rolling the dice."
Trich said the team has sold more than 500 tickets for Thursday's 6:35 p.m. game against Lorain (Ohio). He anticipates the attendance being between 600 and 700.
"We're up against Butler's graduation and there's a hockey game being played that night," Trich said, referring to Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The team also has sold 500 tickets for Saturday night's home game against Slippery Rock, which features fireworks after the contest.
The BlueSox players reported Monday, worked out Tuesday and will work out again today before making their debut.
That doesn't give manager Jason Wuerfel much time to put together a lineup.
"That's why you do that during the recruiting process," Wuerfel said. "When we were looking for players, we knew we needed a leadoff hitter, power hitters, guys who could run — you sort of put together a lineup in your mind as you're signing guys up.
"I'm pretty pleased with the talent we've assembled here. We have some Division III all-Americans, a guy who hit in the middle of a lineup in the Big East, some talented guys from Youngstown State — it's going to be exciting."
Tom Kahl, who pitched for Dominican (N.Y.) College this spring and was his conference's pitcher of the year, will start for the BlueSox Thursday.
Andrew DiNardo of Seton Hill University will start Saturday night against the Sliders. Chuck Nichols of Alvernia College in Reading, who pitched a no-hitter this spring, and Butler graduate Brian Warheit, now pitching for Seton Hill, will be the team's No. 3 and 4 starters, respectively.
Pitch counts will increase as the summer goes on. Wuerfel said no one will throw 100 pitches in an initial start and he hopes to get five or six innings out of his starters.Butler graduate Aaron Ordy, who hit .353 for California (Pa.) University this season, will start at second base and hit in the No. 8 or 9 spot.Prospect League games are nine innings and the circuit will use the designated hitter."I'm looking forward to getting back on the field again," Ordy said. "I haven't played a game in more than two weeks."If I can hit .300 in this league, I'll be happy. We're going to face quality pitching on a regular basis.""Aaron will be like our second leadoff hitter," Wuerfel said. "He'll see some time at shortstop, too. We have a lot of players who can play multiple positions. You have to recruit that way because injuries are inevitable."Two BlueSox pitchers, Brian Muransky from Xavier University and Ryan Thomas from Temple, are opening the season on the disabled list. Both are expected back within two weeks."If not, we'll be signing another pitcher," Trich said. "We need arms."Lorain comes to town with players from Division I programs USC and UC-Riverside in California."They have a lot of players from big schools, but they're mostly freshmen who have redshirted," Wuerfel said. "They're talented kids, but they haven't played much this spring, if at all."Our guys are sophomores and juniors who have already had 200 to 250 at-bats with their college teams. Hopefully, that experience pays off for us."
