[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq5ZTfUH9Kc]
It’s safe to say Brendan Butler made a sound decision in transferring to Dowling from Farleigh Dickinson. He led Dowling to another victory, this time a 9-4 rout of Queens. After three seasons marred with high walk totals, the 6’4″ graduate of Sayville HS is making it easily to forget about the starting rotation of last season.
“Those guys were great last year,” said Butler. “I’m just trying to win, you know. If I could do what they did last year that would be great. If not, as long as we keep winning, I’ll take it any way I can get it,” he added.
They certainly have been winning. With their victory over Queens in the first game of the double header, they improved to 13-4 on the season. Butler was dominant once again, pumping 90+ MPH fastballs past the bats of the Knights all day. He threw eight innings, allowed 0 ER on four hits, three walks while striking out 11 batters. He now has a 1.82 ERA and Dowling’s pitching staff has a cumulative ERA of 2.38.
The offense got out to an early 1-0 lead on an error by the third baseman to score RJ Going and never looked back. Going was on second base and never stopped hustling which enabled him to score without a throw.
In the second inning, they broke the game open with a four-spot. Rob Costanzo singled home Tyler Piccolo. RJ Going tripled home Costanzo. Jon Cruz singled home Going and Adam Schuster singled home Cruz.
That was all Butler would need. He was efficient with his pitches, throwing less than 16 pitches in every inning except the eighth, when two errors (including his own) led to two runs and a 32-pitch struggle.
The Golden Lions lost the second game of the DH 3-2 to bring their record to 13-5. They will finish off their series with Queens on Monday in Flushing.