Butka Shoves to Lead #25 Baseball to Opening Round Win Over W&J

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The 25th-ranked University of Chicago baseball team opened the NCAA Tournament with an 8-1 victory over (RV) Washington and Jefferson on Friday afternoon.

After two quick outs in the top of the first inning, the Presidents strung together a walk, a single, and a UChicago error to push a run across in the top of the first inning. In the bottom of the inning, Braden Jirovec and Erik Rindner led off with singles, and Michael Gladden was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs.** Nathan Bae brought home the first run of the game for UChicago with an RBI single to right field, and **Harrison Belden blew the lead open with a bases-clearing double, stretching the UChicago lead to 4-1. After a pair of groundouts, Jack Sharp brought home the fifth run of the frame with an infield single, capping off the first inning with a 5-1 lead.

After a three-up, three-down second by John Butka, Rindner was hit by a pitch, and Gladden and Bae each hit doubles, stretching the advantage to 7-1 in the second.

Over the next five innings, Butka continued to deal, holding the Presidents to just two hits and four total baserunners as the Maroons held their lead in dominant fashion. Rindner delivered the exclamation point in the bottom of the sixth inning as he launched his program-record 30th career home run to extend the lead to 8-1.

After seven strong innings from Butka, Connor Dong took the ball in the eighth inning and delivered a pair of shutout frames to close out the 8-1 victory in the opening round of the tournament.

Nathan Bae led the offensive attack with a pair of hits and 3 RBIs, and Harrison Belden added 3 RBIs with his first-inning double.** **Erik Rindner added a pair of hits and drove in a run while crossing the plate three times in the win. Jack Sharp and Luke Weston also tallied multi-hit days at the bottom of the order to lead the offense.

On the bump, John Butka earned his seventh win of the season with 7.0 innings and only three hits and one unearned run allowed. Connor Dong added two shutout frames with only one hit and one strikeout.

With the win, the Maroons improve to 28-13 on the season and extend their win streak to 17 consecutive games, dating back to April 11. UChicago advances in the winners bracket of the Regional and will play Scranton on Saturday at 2:30 PM ET.