The Butler BlueSox looked to get back on track offensively in Monday's Prospect League baseball game against East Division-leading Chillicothe.

Taylor Perrett and Jack Raines had other ideas.

The starting pitcher and reliever, respectively, for Chillicothe combined to scatter seven hits while striking out 11 in defeating the Sox, 3-1, at Kelly Automotive Park.

Due to a pair of rainouts last Friday and Saturday, Butler's previous game was an 8-0 loss at West Virginia last Thursday night.

“We had an enormous amount of 3-0 counts at the plate tonight, but ended up losing most of them,” said Butler manager Cody Herald. “It doesn't matter how much talent you have, this is not about athleticism. It comes down to competing at the plate and we didn't do that tonight. We didn't have focus.”

The Sox (2-7) scored their one run in the bottom of the third when Ray Scala and Andrew Chuba had back-to-back extra base hits. Scala tripled to right, followed by Chuba's RBI-double which cut the Paints' lead to 3-1. On the back end of the play, Chuba tried to stretch his hit into a triple, but was thrown out.

Perrett worked 5.2 innings with four strikeouts and a walk while surrendering six hits. His last start came in an 11-5 loss to Butler June 5, which is the last game Butler won. In that outing, Perrett allowed four runs on seven hits in just four innings.

“We were happy to see him bounce back from that,” said Chillicothe manager Brian Bigam. “That first start was not what he had in mind, but he gave us good, quality innings tonight.”

Perrett began to labor a bit in the bottom of the sixth. He gave up consecutive one-out singles to Kellen Sarver and Steven Kokoski. The last batter he faced was Kristian Webb, whose groundout advanced the runners to second and third.

Raines was brought in to douse the threat and he did with a four-pitch strikeout of Nick Spiliotis.

Butler's scoring chances against Raines were few. In fact, the Sox managed just one baserunner against him the rest of the way. Chuba led off the eighth with a single. With two outs, he stole second, but was stranded.

Raines struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth.

It was the third save of the season for Raines, who has not allowed an earned run to score in his 9.1 innings pitched. He now has 13 strikeouts and has not walked a batter.

“Jack has been solid out of the pen for us all season,” said Bigam.

Chillicothe scored all three of its runs off of Butler starter and Knoch graduate Cole Shinsky.

Dallas Hall came home on Andrew Czech's groundout in the top of the first inning. In the third, Conner Klemann laced a two-out, two-run double off the wall in right field.

Shinsky lasted through one batter into the sixth inning. He struck out four, walked three and allowed five hits.

“It looks like a bad start, but in reality, Cole pitched great,” said Herald. “Two of the hits he gave up were bloop singles. He was making good pitches, they were just finding the holes.”

Three Butler relievers — Jarod Deagan (one inning), Kevin Norton (one) and Butler grad Wyatt Daugherty (two) combined to work four scoreless innings.

“We ask those guys to come in and keep the game close for us,” said Herald. “It's progress.”

Butler hosts Chillicothe again tonight with a 7:05 start. The Sox will look to snap a four-game losing streak.

“There's no pressure,” Herald said. “We have a lot of young kids who are just getting into the swing of things. Once we start hitting more as a team, not just individually, we will score more runs.”

Chillicothe 102 000 000 — 3 7 0

Butler 001 000 000 — 1 7 0

W: Taylor Perrett 5.2 IP (4K, 1BB). L: Cole Shinsky 5+ IP (4K, 3BB). S: Jack Raines 3.1 IP (7K, 0BB).

Chillicothe (9-2): Dallas Hall 2-1B R, Conner Klemann 1B 2B 2RBI, Dan McCauley 2B, Jacob Gleason 2B

Butler (2-7): Andrew Chuba 1B 2B RBI, Kellen Sarver 2-1B, Ray Scala 3B R

Tuesday: Chillicothe at Butler