Butler’s Paxton Dwenger delivers an RBI base hit in Friday’s conferene-clinching win over Tipp. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Lee Woolery)
Butler claimed a second straight MVL title by taking down Tipp 10-4 to improve to 20-0 on the season. Koby Dues retired the last ten Tipp batters, including striking out eight in a row.
Vandalia, OH – Don’t let the pink uniforms fool you, there was nothing harmless about what relief pitcher Koby Dues did to Tipp’s lineup Friday to secure a second straight Miami Valley League title.
Dues entered the game in the bottom of the fourth with two outs. He struck out the next eight hitters – five waving, three watching. The next two went down on a fly out and a ground out to end the game 10-4, the series 2-0, and the conference title race.
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“It feels good, they’ve earned it,” Head Coach Trent Dues said. “They’ve played good baseball, and hopefully it continues.”
The Aviators improved to 20-0 (15-0) and built an insurmountable lead over second-place Tipp (15-3) in the MVL. They’re six games away from regular season perfection, but it’s not an ordinary set of six games. Tomorrow night they’ll drive east to Lancaster for an 8 PM showdown with Olentangy Orange (18-3). It will mark Butler’s fourth game in as many days.
Survive that one, and the Aviators still host Moeller and travel to Beavercreek to close the regular season. Once a far-off dream on the horizon, the very real cloud of perfection now hovers directly over them.
“I think they know we haven’t accomplished a lot of our goals yet,” Trent Dues said.
Sophomore Tate Richardson spoke wise words after his three-hit performance. “We all just want to take it one game at a time and not get ahead of ourselves. You gotta take one step at a time and keep grinding.”
Butler’s 20th step toward perfection proved a few things about them. It proved they have enough options on the mound to make a tournament run. This marks three wins in three days, and if there was any question of the pitching staff being top-heavy, those wins, two against second-place Tipp, have to relieve some fears.
Tipp’s Ethan Davis delivers a clutch hit during Friday’s rematch with Butler.
Starting pitcher Mason Reckner went three innings, allowing two runs, and earning the win. Will Kitchin made a brief appearance on the mound and allowed two runs that let Tipp hang around longer than Butler would’ve liked. Trent Dues turned to his son, Koby, who quickly tidied things up, escaping a jam, and buzzsawing through the next ten batters.
“He was fired up,” Trent Dues said. “They were saying some things he didn’t like, and I think that fueled the fire a little bit. He came and just put ‘em down … He’s a much better pitcher than I ever was.”
His son, Koby said much of the credit for his strikeouts belonged to catcher Jackson Schilling. “You can be a lot looser on the mound when you know he’s behind the plate,” he said.
Dues’ teammates streamed out of the dugout to meet him near the third baseline after he struck out the side for the second time in a row in the sixth.
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“That was just electric right there. I was definitely pumped up … We’ve got a great team out here. We’ve got great chemistry, and I think we can do something great.”
Sophomores Dues and Richardson will be a duo to watch for the next two years. And Koby Dues would want to include catcher and fellow sophomore Jackson Schilling to make it a trio. He said much of the credit for his eight strikeouts belongs to Schilling.
Jackson Shilling scores a vital run for the Aviators in the pivotal sixth inning.
Dues leads the team in hits and runs, and Richardson has pitched 16.1 innings with a 1.286 ERA. Tonight they swapped spots, with Dues pitching 3.1 innings without a baserunner, and Richardson batting 3/4 with two runs, a stolen base and an RBI.
“We saw a lot of fastballs early in the count,” Richardson said about his productive evening. “And then we saw that lefty [Carson Jackson] so I had to figure out the left on left curveball, but I got my hands through it and took it the other way too.”
Richardson’s elder brother, Hunter, added 3/4 hitting with a walk, two stolen bases, and two runs from the leadoff spot. Not a bad night for the Richardson crew.
And that’s what makes Butler so tough to beat. Every player contributes to where one player having a bad night won’t cripple the team.
“There’s different guys stepping up all the time.” Trent Dues said. “Declan Scheffler came off the bench and smoked a ball tonight, the Richardsons did great, a lot of them really complement each other, and when one guy is down the others pick him up.”
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Koby Dues and the Richardson bros stick out on the stat sheet, but even the box score tells a story of balanced contribution.
The Aviators scored in all six innings, never more than two runs in an inning.
It wasn’t a certain spot of the lineup manufacturing all the runs, nor a certain inning where they all got hot. Just steady, reliable production from batter one to batter nine. Six Aviators scored, and two others batted in a run.
It’s tough to beat a team that turns every inning into a battle and takes no at-bats off.
Butler jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first, mimicking the start to Wednesday’s 11-5 win. Max Rubins and Tate Richardson crossed the plate in the second to push the lead to 3-0 against Tipp’s starter, Ethan Harney.
But Tipp retaliated with two of its own in the third to keep it tight.
The Red Devils’ death by a thousand paper cuts resumed with an encore of Rubins and Tate Richardson re-extending the lead to 5-2.
The sun set as Tipp added a pair in the fourth. The massive crowd settled in for an evening thriller, but what they got was more of a slasher.
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
Butler’s offense didn’t change a thing, knocking in one in the fourth, two in the fifth, and two in the sixth. But Devil after Devil was excorcised by Koby Dues at the plate. Ten up, ten down, ball game.
Tipp finds itself in an uncomfortable situation, having now lost three days in a row after starting 18-0. The Red Devils’ conference season is over at 15-3 with a pair of losses to Butler broken up by Thursday’s loss to Troy. They earned a second-place finish in the league, and will finish the regular season against Northmont, Brookville and Wayne.
For Butler, it’s 20 down, six to go. Next up, Olentangy Orange for a fourth game in four days. Ready or not, here it comes.
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