In a vast desert of scoreless baseball, Butler finally reached an oasis.

Following Wednesday night’s 1-0 loss to Chillicothe, the BlueSox found themselves mired in a scoreless extra-inning affair with Lorain County Thursday at Pullman Park.

It was in the bottom of the 17th inning when the reprieve arrived off the bat of Michael Pezzone.

His one-out dribbler up the third-base line with the bases loaded allowed Pat McCarthy to score the run both teams had been in search of for well over four hours.

The 1-0 victory was even more important because, earlier in the evening, Chillicothe had upended West Virginia 2-1. Butler’s win keeps the BlueSox one game ahead of the Paints for the final playoff spot from the Prospect League’s East Division with three games left.

“I am so ecstatic this game is over,” said Butler manager Anthony Rebyanski, who sat emotionally drained in his team’s dugout. “We went 25 2/3 innings without scoring a run, but it’s great to pull out a win in a game like this, especially since Chillicothe also won.”

McCarthy’s one-out double in the bottom of the 17th opened the door for Butler to score the game’s lone tally.

Ryan Wonders followed with a flyout, which allowed McCarthy to move to third base.

Lorain’s Eric Hall, who would take the loss, was then instructed to issue consecutive intentional walks to Josh Forbes and Zarley Zalewski that loaded the bases.

That brought Pezzone to the plate, already with two hits in the game to his credit.

His third hit bounced up the third-base line, but was clearly going to remain in fair territory. McCarthy raced toward the plate at the crack of the bat and was well past Lorain catcher Lou Peterlin by the time the backstop controlled the ball, a good 15 feet from home plate.

The game without a run was finally over.

“I don’t recall ever being involved in a game that was scoreless for this long,” said Lorain manager Kevin Rhomberg. “This was a great ballgame with outstanding pitching and defense.”

Combining for the shutout were Butler hurlers Ben Hartz, Jordan Schwartz, Tyler Ferguson, and winning pitcher Tyler Swarmer.

While all of them had a huge say in the game’s outcome, it was Ferguson who earned the most accolades.

He entered the game with no outs and two runners on base in the top of the ninth inning.

He induced Anthony Nemer to ground out as the baserunners advanced to second and third.

Nate Langhals then grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

Ferguson, a southpaw, would go on to pitch 6 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out 13 and walking four.

“I’m a starter at LaRoche (College), so pitching this long in a game isn’t a big deal for me,” said Ferguson, who had added incentive to pitch well Thursday.

“I gave up the winning hit against Chillicothe on Wednesday,” he said. “I had a lot of built-up frustration from that game and felt I had to redeem myself.”

“You can see it in his eyes,” said Rebyanski of Ferguson. “He’s a guy who doesn’t want to come out of a game.”

Both teams had a runner thrown out at the plate during the course of the game.

With the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, Butler’s Matt Peters hit a fly ball to right, where Lorain’s Tyler Bires caught the ball, then delivered a perfect throw home to get Tyler Detmer, who had tagged from third.

In the top of the 16th, it was Lorain’s turn to be denied.

Ryan Leffel was at second base with one out when Nemer singled to right, where Pezzone fired home in more than enough time to get Leffel.

Lorain also used four pitchers in the game — Michael Koltak, who pitched nine scoreless innings, Zach Beaver, Andrew Fanning and Hall.

Rebyanski is not concerned about his team’s recent struggles to score.

“We’ve been here before,” he said. “You have to give credit to Lorain, their pitchers were incredible tonight.

“Our guys are tired, but hopefully, this win will energize us for (tonight’s) game up in Lorain.”

Notes: The teams combined to strand 33 runners on base, Butler with 17 and Lorain County with 16. ... Butler’s pitchers combined to strike out 27 batters while walking nine. Lorain’s pitchers struck out eight and walked eight.

Lorain County 000000000000 00000 — 0 10 1

Butler 000 000 000 000 000 01 — 1 12 0

W: Tyler Swarmer 2.1 IP (4K, 0BB). L: Eric Hall 2.2 IP (1K, 3BB).

Lorain County (22-35): Scott Splett 2-1B, Billy Salem 3-1B, Ryan Leffel 2-1B 2B, Lou Peterlin 1B, Anthony Nemer 1B

Butler (33-24): Cody Herald 1B, Matt Peters 1B 2B, Pat McCarthy 2-1B 2B R, Michael Pezzone 3-1B RBI, Tyler Detmer 3-1B

Today: Butler at Lorain County