Butler Iron Bucks win fourth straight NABA league championship thanks to clutch pitching, big inning
The Butler dynasty extends another year.
The Iron Bucks beat the Rock Redbirds 11-7 in Sunday’s North American Baseball Alliance championship game, claiming a fourth straight league title.
“They’re all (the four championships) kind of special in different ways. This one I think was unique in the sense that we had three or four key players injured that were not able to participate (and others on vacation late in the year),” manager Kenny Creehan said. “So our backs were really to the wall. … I think that’s what makes it really special and those things happen, and you have that next-man-up mentality.”
Butler, which plays its home games at Pullman Park, fell behind in the bottom of the second inning when the Redbirds scored five runs on “uncharacteristic” defensive blunders by the Iron Bucks, taking a 5-1 lead. The Redbirds played their home games at Slippery Rock University’s Critchfield Park.
The Iron Bucks immediately replied with their own big inning, Creehan said, and retook the lead.
“We punch right back with a big, crooked number of our own,” he said. “You could tell it flipped … the whole mentality for the game.”
The NABA playoffs, featuring teams made up primarily of college baseball players, were shortened from eight teams to four over the weekend due to the Canadian wildfires. With the season having to be completed by Sunday, both the semifinals and final were played that day in Youngstown, Ohio. Butler beat the Allegheny A’s 4-1 in the semifinal, and Rock beat the 3B Barons in the other semi.
The Iron Bucks pieced together enough pitching to survive the doubleheader, with Gannon University pitcher Dylan Paul throwing the final 4 1/3 innings of the championship to get the win. Paul allowed just one hit and struck out three in relief.
“He was absolutely stellar,” Creehan said. “He completely closed the door for us.”
Butler right fielder Dylan Smith (Slippery Rock University) was 2-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored as five Iron Bucks recorded two hits each. Aeden Fowler (Gannon) was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, and Noah Kaszer (California, Pa.) was 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored.
