Growing pains can be ... well, painful.

Butler stranded 11 runners and allowed runs to score on a balk, dropped infield fly and an inside-the-park home run in dropping a 7-2 baseball decision to McDowell Wednesday night at Pullman Park.

The loss was the third straight for the Golden Tornado, who have been out-scored 29-6 during that stretch.

“We do have a lot of new faces out here,” Butler coach Todd Erdos said. “We're doing a lot of evaluating right now, seeing who fits the best in what situations.”

Butler hosts Pine-Richland in a non-section home Friday at the high school field before opening league play Monday.

McDowell pitchers walked eight batters Wednesday, but allowed none of them to score. The Tornado scored both of their runs in the second inning without the benefit of a hit.

Mike Hepler reached on an infield error to start the frame. Garrett Goslaw was awarded first base on catcher's interference and consecutive walks to Nick Patten and Kyle Campbell plated a run.

Ryan Denny then grounded sharply to shortstop for a would-be double play, but the relay to first was off the mark as Goslaw crossed the plate to give Butler a 2-0 lead.

“We're usually a very solid defensive team,” McDowell coach Mike Hayes said. “But tonight, with the cold air and the turf our guys aren't used to ... It gave us problems.”

The Trojans made up for those difficulties, scoring three times in the fourth. A wild pitch, balk and RBI single by Mark Kightlinger produced the tallies.

Two more runs crossed the plate in the fifth when the Tornado botched a relay on Brian Bohman's inside-the-park homer. Two errors enabled two more McDowell runs to score in the sixth.

“We're not good enough to allow another team extra bases or extra outs,” Erdos said.

Drew Spangler struck out five in 3.2 innings, but took the loss. Mark Fuchs pitched the final four frames for McDowell to collect the win after starter Zach Borsa threw 68 pitches in three innings.

“On a night like this, it's about throwing strikes and seeing which team is going to hit the ball,” Hayes said.

Butler managed three singles offensively, two of them by Hepler. The Tornado stranded runners in every inning.

“Our hits always came with no one on,” Erdos said. “We never got the big one.”

Shortstop and No. 3 hitter Cory Wheeler left midway through the game with an ankle injury. He was taken to the hospital for X-rays.

“He tweaked it sliding into third base and really felt it when he swung the bat the next inning,” Erdos said. “Hopefully, he's OK.”

McDowell 000 322 0— 7 5 2

Butler 020 000 0 — 2 3 3

W: Mark Fuchs 4IP (4K, 5BB). L: Drew Spangler 3.2IP (5K, 3BB).

McDowell (3-0): Riley Warren 2B, Brian Bohman HR 1B 2-RBI 2-R, Mark Kightlinger 2B 1B RBI

Butler (1-3): Ryan Denny RBI, Logan Maxwell 1B, Mike Hepler 2-1B, Kyle Campbell RBI

Friday: Pine-Richland at Butler