Slippery Rock manager Andy Chalot knew his team would start to hit.

The Sliders did right out of the gate Friday.

A four-run first inning helped set the tone for Slippery Rock on the way to an 8-4 Prospect League victory over the Butler BlueSox at Pullman Park.

“It was huge,” said Chalot on the early run support. “We juggled the lineup a little, just to try and get things going.

“One thing we've been working on (is) not swinging at bad pitches. We've taken a lot of counts deep,” Chalot added.

Butler spent the evening chipping away and trimmed the deficit to 5-4, but had the bases loaded in the seventh inning and no one out and first and second with one out in the eighth and came away empty-handed.

“The momentum was definitely not on our side,” said BlueSox manager Anthony Rebyanski. “Sometime you realize that.

“We didn't capitalize on their mistakes and we ended up making a couple of mistakes on the base paths, and that was my fault,” he added.

In the seventh inning, Matt Berezo walked, Colin Harrington reached on an error and Shayne Houck walked to load the bases.

But Slippery Rock relief pitcher Kevin Jurkatis got Jason Radwan to pop out on a 3-1 pitch, Chris Rasky to ground into a fielder's choice at home and Jacob Reese to ground out to end the threat.

“That was probably the ballgame,” said Chalot. “He fell behind 2-0 and I went out to calm him down. There was never a thought to take him out because we needed a ground ball.”

Kevin MacLachlan relieved Butler starter Pete Slavonic and tossed 4 2-3 innings of no-hit ball to keep the BlueSox in the game.

MacLachlan did allow five walks to go with seven strikeouts and coughed up an earned run.

The Sliders tacked on an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning when David Leon lined a two-out RBI single off the third Butler pitcher of the night, Brian Thompson, to make it 6-4.

Butler had another chance to turn the tide in the bottom of the eighth inning. Stephen Vranka led off with a single, and one out later, Jon Danielczyk was hit by a pitch.

Berezo launched a deep drive to center where Michael Durham made an over-the-shoulder catch. With the runners scrambling back to their respective bases, Durham hit the cutoff man, who threw to second to double up Vranka.

In the ninth, the Sliders expanded their lead when pinch-hitter Matt Elliott added an RBI single and another run scored on an error for the 8-4 lead.

Notes: The attendance of 1,430 set a single-game BlueSox record ... Butler had the leadoff batter reach base in seven of the first eight innings ... Slippery Rock stranded 12 runners on base; Butler left nine ... Slipper Rock assistant coach Jon Rodriguez missed the game because of two broken bones in his face suffered when a ball hit him in practice. “We were thinking about him during the game,” said Chalot.”

Slippery Rock 410 000 012 — 8 10 4Butler 100 201 000 — 4 10 0W: Josh Tinnon 5.1 IP (2K, 1BB).

L: Pete Slavonic 2IP (1K, 3BB).

Slippery Rock (9-17): David Leon 2-1B, RBI; Fred Ford 1B, RBI; Radley Haddad 1B, 2B, RBI; Michael Durham 3B, 2 RBI; Steve Sulcoski 1B, RBI; Mason Dillon 1B; Brooks Schneider 1B; Mitch Elliott 1B, RBI

Butler (12-14): Matt Berezo 1B; Colin Harrington 2-1B; Shayne Houck 1B, RBI; Jacob Reese 1B, 2B, RBI; Stephen Vranka 2-1B; Bret Basilone 2B, RBI; Ryan Siegel 1B

Saturday: Butler at Slippery Rock, 7:05 p.m.