SLIPPERY ROCK — What do you do with a fish out of water?

Put him back in.

That theory has worked wonders for the Slippery Rock Sliders, particularly in their 5-3 Prospect League baseball win over Butler Sunday night at Critchfield Park.

The win kept the Sliders in first place in the East Division for the second half. Trent Wooldridge continued the torrid hitting pace he’s been on since being inserted into the team’s leadoff spot in the batting order a month ago.

He had hit leadoff all spring for Three Rivers College in Missouri.

“Trent was hitting .180 or something like that and has raised his average 100 points over the past four weeks,” Slippery Rock manager Andy Chalot said. “He has been amazing.

“We really struggled to score runs in the first half of the season. I had to try something, so I threw him into the leadoff spot and he got on base four times that night.

“Since then, he’s been in the middle of everything we’ve done,” Chalot added.

Add a few more points to that 100. Wooldridge, an incoming sophomore at Three Rivers, went 5-for-5 Sunday with five singles, three RBI and a run scored.

His two-out, two-run single to center capped a three-run second inning that gave the Sliders a 3-2 lead. Wooldridge began the seventh with a bunt single and eventually scored the go-ahead run.

After fouling off numerous pitches, Wooldridge grounded a single to right, plating Chris Vopinek with an insurance run in the eighth.

“I’ve hit in the leadoff spot all my life,” Wooldridge said. “When I first came here, I was spotted into the lineup, usually toward the bottom somewhere.

“It was a little different for me.”

Not anymore.

Wooldridge led his college team with a .337 average this spring. He had five hits in a game for that team, but had not done so in a Sliders uniform.

“You tip your hat to a hitter like that,” BlueSox manager Anthony Rebyanski said. “He does the little things right at the plate every at-bat.

“Guys like that foul pitches off, rarely strike out, fist the ball into holes. ... They are just very tough outs.”

The BlueSox scored twice in the first inning on a two-out RBI single by Jason Radwan and run-scoring double by Chris Rasky. After the Sliders’ three-spot in the second, Butler got even in the fifth on Shayne Houck’s run-scoring double. Houck entered the game hitting .354 and was 2-for-4 Sunday.

With runners on second and third and one out in the fifth, Radwan grounded to shortstop with a drawn-in infield and Rasky flew out to left as Slippery Rock starting pitcher Nick Umberger escaped further damage.

“It’s a nine-inning game and we’re taking failures at the plate with us into the field too much,” Rebyanski said. “That’s affecting our play a little bit.”

After Wooldridge’s bunt single to start the seventh, a wild pitch moved him to second. He took third on an infield grounder and scored the go-ahead run when Fred Ford’s ground ball got under shortstop Matt Berezo’s glove for an error.

Vopinek and James Lundstrom — the Sliders’ No. 8 and 9 hitters — drew one-out walks in the eighth before Wooldridge drove home a run.

Chase Byerly worked a perfect ninth inning for his league-leading 11th save.

“He’s been lights out all year,” Chalot said. “It’s a joke he wasn’t picked for the All-Star Game.”

The Sliders took two of three games from the BlueSox over the weekend. Butler took a 6-4 decision Saturday night before 1,077 fans at Pullman Park.

David Kaye was the winning pitcher and Julian Diaz got the save. Houck hit a two-run homer — his seventh — in the third inning. Berezo had a triple and single while Freeport graduate Ryan Siegel had a triple and RBI.

Lundstrom had three singles and two RBI, Michael Durham two singles and two RBI for Slippery Rock.

Butler BlueSox 200 010 000 — 3 7 2Slippery Rock 030 000 11x — 5 10 3W: Danny Ossiginac 2 IP (0K, 1BB).

L: Corey Young 1 1-3 IP (1K, 1BB).

Butler (7-8): Stephen Vranka 1B, Shayne Houck 2B 1B RBI, Jason Radwan 2-1B RBI, Chris Rasky 2B RBI, Bret Basilone 1B.

Slippery Rock (10-7): Trent Wooldridge 5-1B 3-RBI, Michael Durham 1B, Fred Ford 1B, David Leon 1B, Kevin Burgi 1B RBI, James Lundstrom 1B.

Today: Butler at Lorain County, DH, 5 p.m.

Tuesday: Slippery Rock at Butler, 6:35 p.m.