Butler was in no position to be picky.

The BlueSox had lost five straight games entering a weekend home-and-home Prospect League series with the Chillicothe Paints and needed wins no matter how they came.

But back-to-back shutouts — 3-0 Saturday on the road and 2-0 Sunday at Kelly Automotive Park — were icing on the cake for the Sox.

“We’re still not hitting the ball that great, but we did enough on offense to win,” said Butler manager Jason Radwan. “Our starting pitching has been doing well for us, even during the losing streak. It was the bullpen that was struggling, but over the weekend our relievers contributed to the wins and that was good to see.”

David Lemasters was the star of Sunday’s victory. He shut out the Paints for eight innings, allowing just three hits while striking out six and walking one.

“I relied a lot on my cutter and curveball, throwing it low and outside,” said Lemasters, who compiled a 4-1 record and a 3.82 ERA last season for Champion City. “That keeps them guessing and once you do that, you can start spotting your fastball.”

The Paints managed a baserunner in the first and fourth inning due to Butler errors, but double plays helped to kill both scoring chances.

Lemasters allowed one hit in the first six innings — a double by Dylan Shockley in the top of the third, but he was stranded at third base.

The only true jam Lemasters encountered came in the seventh frame. With one out, Jamie Lackner singled, moved to second base on a passed ball and to third on a wild pitch.

Lemasters then walked Korbin Williams, but induced Bradley Boss to pop out and Shockley to fly out to escape the threat unscathed.

“He threw only 90 pitches in eight innings tonight,” Radwan said of Lemasters. “He was getting ahead of hitters and had good life on his curveball and fastball.”

Through six innings, Chillicothe’s Derek Moore proved to be Lemaster’s equal. But he ended up taking the loss, due in part to bad defense.

Butler’s Tyler Niemann tripled to lead off the bottom of the seventh and the relay throw to third base bounced into foul territory, allowing him to jog home for the game’s first run.

Moore pitched to one more batter — getting Jamie Switalski to ground out — before leaving the game in favor of David Current. The former allowed just the one unearned run on four hits in his 6 1/3 innings.

“He’s had tough luck this year,” said Chillicothe pitching coach Tyler Eaton of Moore, who saw his record drop to 0-3 despite a respectable 3.41 ERA. “It’s extremely frustrating to see a guy throw like he did tonight and get the loss. Yeah, their guy hit a triple, but the reason he scored was an error. Our offense and defense let us down tonight.”

The Sox scored another unearned run in the eighth. Russ Clark was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on Nick Spangler’s sacrifice bunt and scored on an error.

Butler’s Kyle Zurak pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save of the season.

Butler is currently in fourth place in the East Division standings, 1½ games behind Lafayette and West Virginia and a game behind third-place Kokomo.The Miners visit the KAP Tuesday and Wednesday. The winner of the East Division after Wednesday’s games guarantees itself a postseason berth.

“We have another team in front of us, Kokomo (15-13), so we need some help,” said Radwan. “But we do have one of the teams we’re chasing coming in here.”

In Saturday’s win, starter and winning pitcher Pavin Parks (7 2/3 innings) and relievers Zach Patterson and Zurak combined to shut out the Paints on six hits.

Dalton Hoiles and Switalski both had two hits and one RBI.

Chillicothe 000 000 000 — 0 4 3

Butler 000 000 11x — 2 5 2

W: David Lemasters 8 IP (6K, 1BB). L: Derek Moore 6.1 IP (3K, 0BB). S: Kyle Zurak 1 IP (1K, 0BB).

Chillicothe (12-15): Jamie Lackner 2-1B, Dylan Shockley 2B, Eli Boggess 1B

Butler (14-14): Tyler Sullivan 1B, Nick Stotler 1B, Will Schneider 1B, Tyler Niemann 3B R, Jamie Switalski 2B, Russ Clark R

Tuesday: West Virginia at Butler