INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana State sent 13 batters to the plate and put seven runs on the board in the top of the third inning Tuesday night en route to an 11-4 cruise past Butler at Victory Field. 

The Sycamores mounted a 17-hit attack, topped by Clay Dungan's five hits in six trips to the plate.  Luke Fegen went 3-for-4 for Indiana State while CJ Huntley, Dane Gielser and Jarrod Watkins chipped in with two hits apiece. 

Dungan, a junior shortstop from Yorktown High School, scored twice and knocked in three runs.  The ISU leadoff hitter's performance upped his season average 20 points to .264.  

“I felt like I was seeing the ball well, hitting ‘em, and they were just falling,” said Dungan, whose parents were on hand for the game, along with his sister and two nephews.  “Playing like that in front of them was special, because the little guys look up to me,” he added.       

Indiana State (22-19) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a two-out double by Fegen and Dungan’s RBI single. 

Butler (27-13) made it 1-all in the bottom of the frame when Harrison Freed, a sophomore left fielder from Westfield High School, blasted a 410-foot shot beyond the center field wall for his first homer of the year.  

Joe Graziano, a freshman left-hander, started for the Bulldogs and went two innings.  The Lake Central High School alum gave up one run on three hits, a pair of walks and a hit  batter. 

Freshman right-hander Jack Myers took over for Graziano to start the third, and the Sycamores gave the ex-Cathedral High School star a rude reception.  Four hits, one walk, two runs and no outs later, Myers gave way to righty Luke Waeghe, another first-year man.  Before Waeghe could retire the side, the Sycamores had tacked on five more runs. 

Geremy Guerrero got the nod for Indiana State.  The sophomore southpaw departed in the bottom of the second after back-to-back singles by Duncan Hewitt and Zach Jarosz.  Donnie Ames came in from the pen, and the right-hander's wild throw on Tyler Houston's tapper back to the mound led to a pair of unearned Butler runs that made it 8-3.   

Ames, a redshirt sophomore from Terre Haute West who spent a year at Olney Central College, gave up a run with two gone in the fourth.  With two away, Connor Dall walked, moved to second on a base on balls to Hewitt and scored on Zach Jarosz’s single.  

After that, Ames settled down and retired six in a row before Dall’s two-out, sixth-inning single.  That brought in senior right-hander Ethan Larrison, and the Shelbyville High School graduate pitched scoreless ball for the next three and one-third frames.    

The game was held up with a man on first and one out in the top of the eighth when the Butler trainer had to treat John MacCauley, the last of six Bulldog pitchers, for a bloody nose.  The three-hour, 18 minute contest dragged on further when home plate umpire Shannon Bunger tossed Butler coach Dave Schrage during the eighth, and Schrage rambled out of the third-base dugout to vent his displeasure.

Dall, Butler’s junior first baseman, and Jarosz, a sophomore second baseman, both had two of the Bulldogs’ six hits. 

Ames (1-0) got the win while Myers (1-1) was charged with the loss.  Larrison, mixing in a slider and curve with his fastball, struck out four and picked up his ninth save. 

Myers' last appearance at Victory Field went much more smoothly.  Playing right field for Cathedral in last year's IHSAA Class 4A championship game, he started went 1-for-4 with an RBI as the Irish won 4-3 to complete a 29-0 season.

Most of the other participants were playing in the International League Indianapolis Indians’ home park for the first time.  “I’d never played here before,” said Dungan.  “It’s awesome.  It’s a great experience, a great venue.  I’ve come to a couple of games here, but that’s nothing like playing here.” 

“It was awesome.  Great field,” said Larrison, who remembers watching from the stands when San Francisco Giants center fielder Andrew McCutchen played for Indianapolis. 

“Having all these fans around in a nice stadium, cheering the whole game, was a lot of fun,” Larrison continued.  “I’ve got a little brother, Brock, that’s about 11 years old, and he played on this field before I did.  He was here tonight, along with my dad, grandma, mom, and a bunch of cousins I haven’t seen in awhile – probably about 15-20 people.”   

Ames, Larrison and Myers were among the 27 former Indiana high school players on the Butler and Indiana State rosters – 13 for the Sycamores, 14 for the Bulldogs.  The complete list:

Butler

Right-handed pitchers:  Jr. Quentin Miller (Pendleton Heights HS), Fr. Jack Myers (Cathedral HS), So. Ryan Pepiot (Westfield HS), So. Jack Pilcher (Zionsville HS).

Left-handed pitchers:  Fr. Joe Graziano (Lake Central HS), RS Jr. Connor Mitchell (Plainfield HS).

Catchers:  So. Duncan Hewitt (Lawrence North HS).

Infielders:  Fr. Andy Bennett (Fishers HS), So. 3B/C Connor Christman (Noblesville HS), Sr. INF/RHP Garrett Christman (Noblesville HS), RS Sr. Michael Hartnagel (Brownsburg HS), Fr. 1B Justin Hensley (Brebeuf Jesuit HS).

Outfielders:  So. Harrison Freed (Westfield HS), Sr. Tyler Houston (Brownsburg HS).

Indiana State

Right-handed pitchers:  RS So. Donnie Ames (Terre Haute West HS/Olney Central CC), Jr. Evan Giles (Franklin HS), RS Fr. Dalton Laney (Rockville HS), Sr. Ethan Larrison (Shelbyville HS), Jr. Tyler Ward (Heritage Hills HS).

Left-handed pitchers:  Jr. Triton Polley (Brownsburg HS).

Catchers:  Jr. C Bailey Partlow (Westfield HS/Pasco-Hernando State CC).

Infielders:  RS So. Nolan Brimbury (Peru HS), Jr. Clay Dungan (Yorktown HS),

RS Sr. INF Dane Giesler (Jasper HS/Wabash Valley CC), RS Fr. Jordan Schaffer (Terre Haute West HS).

Outfielders:  Fr. Nick Barrett (Terre Haute North HS), RS So. Brandt Nowaskie (Vincennes Lincoln HS).

Pete Cava is the author of “Tales From the Cubs Dugout” and “Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014.”