The Northern Kentucky baseball squad defeated the Butler Bulldogs 8-3 on Wednesday afternoon, at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex. The Norse improve to 9-16 on the season while Butler drops to 8-16.

Butler scored early in the first and third, but those runs did not go unanswered. The Norse compiled four runs in the bottom of the third, with hits from Dominic Mercurio, Conor Ledger, Logan Spurlin and Matt Moffatt. Northern quickly took the lead at 4-2.

Ianni entered a long fourth inning, struggling to find a strike zone and loaded the bases for Butler with two outs. Sophomore Pierce Knisley replaced him, and induced a pop out from Michael Hartnagel and got the Norse out of the inning.

Quint Heady led off the bottom of the fourth with a deep home run to put the Norse up 5-2. A curve hit Ledger and he eventually scored on a Trey Ganns doubles, extending  the lead to 6-2.

The Norse didn’t stop there.  After a bunt from Ledger, Spurlin hits the second homerun of the game pushing the Norse’ lead to 8-2 in the sixth inning. The Norse pitching staff only allowed one more run to the Bulldog hitter to secure their second straight win.  

Senior catcher Logan Spurlin continued to produce for the Norse, going 2-3 and slugging his 5th home run of the season, passing his career best.. He also went  2-4 yesterday in the victory against 12th ranked Kentucky. ,

Spurlin has really shown his leadership on the field this season as the signal caller for the defense and his improved offense this season. .

“He has really taken control of the team, with his play and his voice.” head coach Todd Asalon said.

“It just feels great to get the win today,” he says. “the guys in front of me were getting on base and giving me chances to get those RBI’s tallied up.”

Spurlin has had a total of six of them over the last two games.

Asalon also said that winning yesterday’s game definitely got the team going in the right direction.

“I think it gave us the confidence going into todays game. Going down to Lexington and beating a team like that is always a good thing.” Asalon said. “We needed a win like that, it helps them know that they can win and that they can win at this level.”

The Norse will look to earn their first Horizon League victory when they travel north to face Wright State for a three-game series this weekend. First pitch is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Nischwitz Stadium.