Butler Overwhelms Greenville 15-2

GREENVILLE - There’s something about the first league game of the year.

It doesn’t matter how many scrimmages you’ve played, or how well you looked down in Myrtle Beach. When the Miami Valley League schedule opens up and there’s another column of standings on the line…that’s when you find out something real about a baseball team.

Butler found out Monday.

And so did Greenville.

The Aviators (5-0) traveled to face the Green Wave in what amounted to the first real measuring stick of the 2026 season — the kind of game that matters in April and matters even more in May — and they answered it the way a team answers when it’s been built right. They put up 15. They gave up 2. And by the time Tate Richardson was done on the mound and Koby Dues was done at the plate, there wasn’t much left for Greenville to feel good about on a Monday evening.

It started early, the way it tends to do when a lineup has this kind of depth.

In the first, a wild pitch got things going, and then Richardson — who would turn out to be a key contributor in more ways than one — singled to left and brought two more home. Three runs before Greenville had time to settle in. And if you’ve watched this Butler club for more than an inning or two, you already knew what that meant.

It meant it was going to be a long night for the Green Wave.

The third inning confirmed it.

Six runs. Four hits. And right in the middle of it, Aidan White did what great hitters in a lineup are supposed to do when the bases are loaded and the moment calls for something big. He hit it to right field and kept going…all the way around. Grand slam. Just like that, the scoreboard read 9-2 and brought with it the kind of quiet that settles over a home crowd. The kind that doesn’t lift.

Dues made sure of it.

The junior shortstop went 3-for-4 on the night — singled in the first, singled again in the third, and then in the fifth, with the game already well in hand, he stepped in and drove one to left field that didn’t need anyone’s help. Solo home run. Three hits, three RBIs, and a sacrifice fly later in the sixth for good measure. It was the kind of box score line that a kid circles on a printout and keeps somewhere.

And then there was Richardson.

Here’s where it gets interesting — because Richardson (2-0) wasn’t just one of the best hitters in the Butler lineup on Monday. He was also the winning pitcher. The right-hander took the ball in relief after freshman Liam Edwards started and worked 4⅓ innings, surrendered no runs, struck out seven, and gave Greenville nothing to build on. Two jobs in one night, and he did both of them well enough to make it look routine.

It wasn’t routine.

It was the kind of performance that makes a coaching staff exhale.

Butler finished with 10 hits and seven walks — seven — which tells you as much about the plate discipline as the batting average does. White led the way with four RBIs. Richardson added two hits in two at-bats. Dues collected his three. The order didn’t have a soft spot in it, and Greenville’s pitching staff — Michael Fox, who took the loss after 1⅔ innings, and the relievers who followed — never really found a way to slow the train down.

The final was 15-2.

And just like that, Butler is off and running in the MVL.

They’ll be back home Wednesday to face the Sidney Yellow Jackets — another chance to show what this team is, and what it intends to be.

Based on Monday evening…they intend to be a problem.