Butler Slides Past Wapakoneta 3-1

VANDALIA - Works wins. On Saturday afternoon, the Aviators showed that grit wins too.

No big inning. No crooked number that flipped the game. Just ten innings of baseball that Butler controlled a little at a time until there wasn’t much left for Wapakoneta to take.

That’s how this one unfolded, a 3–1 scrimmage win that said more about how Butler plays than how many runs they scored.

Because from the start, it belonged to the arms.

Senior Davis Ketterer set the tone with three quiet innings — one hit, no runs, nothing squared up with authority. It wasn’t overpowering. It was steady. The kind of outing that lets everyone else settle in behind it.

And from there, Butler just kept handing the ball to the next guy.

Jayden Starcher. Koby Dues. Logan Smith. Carson Heis. Jackson Schilling.

Six pitchers, ten innings, nine strikeouts, one run.

There’s something to that this early in the year — not just that they threw strikes, but that nothing unraveled. No free passes into trouble. No inning that sped up on them. Every arm came in and did exactly what was asked: get outs and move it along.

The Redskins never found a stretch where the game felt like it was tilting.

And while the pitching carried the weight, the offense did just enough — and did it the right way.

It started in the second.

Junior Jack Egbert put together one of those at-bats that changes an inning without much attention — got on, moved, and never stopped. Ketterer followed with a clean swing to right, and Butler had a lead without needing anything complicated.

That was the pattern.

Not loud. Just timely.

They added another in the fourth, manufacturing it more than hitting it — a sacrifice fly from sophomore Carson Heis that brought home junior Tate Richardson. Productive outs. Situational baseball. The type of execution that doesn’t show up in the stat line as much as it creates a parade of dugout dap ups.

And then in the tenth, the Aviators gave themselves space.

Koby Dues got it started, and fellow junior Jackson Schilling finished it — a line drive to center that pushed the lead to 3–1. Not a knockout punch. Just enough to make the last three outs feel longer for the other side.

At the plate, Egbert stood out — three hits, consistent contact, never trying to do too much. Dues added a pair. Ketterer contributed on both sides. And throughout, Butler pressured the game — taking walks, stealing bags, forcing movement.

They weren’t waiting for a big swing.

They were creating small advantages and stacking them.

A team that understands how to play with the lead… even when the lead is only one run. A pitching staff that throws enough strikes to keep the defense engaged. An offense that doesn’t need a rally to score.

It’s March, and there’s still plenty that will get cleaned up.

But this part?

This travels.

And if Butler keeps getting this kind of pitching — layered, steady, interchangeable — they won’t need much more than what they showed Saturday.

Just a few runs...and the patience to let the game come to them.