If baseball is all about pitching, this baseball season may be all about Butler.

Junior right-hander Mac Schnur and junior left-hander James Desmond combined to limit Mt. Lebanon to six hits, striking out eight in the Golden Tornado’s 3-1 victory Thursday at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park.

The Tornado (2-0) have allowed only two runs in their first two contests. The Blue Devils’ lone run Thursday was unearned.

“We work on pitching and defense a lot,” Butler coach Josh Forbes said. “We made a couple of errors today and it cost us a run, but overall, I think defense will be a strength of ours.

“It helps that we play a lot of games on artificial turf. We get a lot of true hops and our pitchers trust their teammates to make plays behind them.”

“I know they have my back,” Schnur said. “All I have to do is focus and throw strikes. They will make the plays.”

Schnur was the winning pitcher Thursday, working four innings and striking out four. He allowed only one walk and pitched out of trouble a couple of times.

With runners on first and second and one out in the first inning,. Butler turned a double play on Mt. Lebanon clean-up hitter Tyler Smith. Ely Heidenreich tripled to deep left to lead off the Blue Devil third, but Schnur struck out Matt Dellvaux, got Jack Smith to foul out to first and got Tanner Donati to ground out to second to escape damage.

David Shields led off the fourth with a single down the right field line. Right fielder Liam McElroy threw him out at second as Shields tried legging out a double.

Mt. Lebanon (1-3) did take a 1-0 lead in the second as David Shields singled, moved to third on Benny Hornburg’s single and scored when a pickoff throw to first base got away.

“It’s all about keeping your composure when chaos is happening around you,” Forbes said. “Mac remained composed on the mound at all times. Last year, maybe he doesn’t escape those jams.

“You can see his maturity and confidence out there. He could have a big year for us.”

Schnur threw 65 pitches in four innings, departing with a 2-1 lead. Madden Clement doubled to deep center in the third and scored on Colin Patterson’s two-out single to right. Kyle Yost reached on an error leading off the fourth and scored on No. 9 hitter Conner McTighe’s two-out double down the left field line.

“I love those two-out RBIs,” Forbes said. “Never give up on an inning.”

Desmond pitched the final three frames for the Tornado, allowing one hit and striking out four. He only threw 31 pitches.

Butler’s third run came in the sixth as Brady Gavula singled, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Kyle Yost’s sacrifice fly.

“I’m used to coming in out of the bullpen. I did it last year,” Desmond said. “Pitching is definitely a strong suit of ours. We were all sophomores last year. Now we’re more experienced.”

Schnur said: “We can mix things up by starting a righty, bring in a lefty, or the other way around. We’ve got a lot of guys who can throw.”

Mt. Lebanon coach Pat McCloskey knew that coming in. The Tornado knocked the Blue Devils out of the WPIAL playoffs last year.

“They have quality pitching ... outstanding pitching,” McCloskey said. “That’s why we wanted to play them early. You learn by facing good pitching. If we faced guys who threw a bunch of slop up there and we banged it all over the place, we wouldn’t learn anything.”

The Blue Devils fell to 1-3 with their third straight loss.

“I believe in our team and I think we can contend in the WPIAL,” McCloskey said. “But we have to start winning some games.”

Mt. Lebanon 010 000 0 — 1 6 2

Butler 001 101 x — 3 5 2

W: Mac Schnur 4IP (4K, 1BB). L: Owen Mitchell 4IP (3K, 1BB)

Mt. Lebanon (1-3): Ely Heidenreich 3B, Jack Smith 2-1B, David Shields 2-1B, Benny Hornburg 1B

Butler (2-0): Madden Clement 2B, Colin Patterson 1B RBI, Brady Gavula 1B, Kyle Yost RBI, Liam McElroy 2B, Conner McTighe 2B RBI

Monday: Allderdice at Butler