That’s the story in Vandalia where the top-ranked Butler High School baseball team is aiming for another Miami Valley League Miami division title and beyond.
The Aviators entered the latter half of April with a perfect record thanks to contributions from a mix of players young and old.
Senior Hunter Richardson is 3-0 with a 1.16 ERA and batting .429 with 13 RBIs while senior Mason Reckner is batting .425 with 14 RBIs, sophomore Koby Dues is batting .405 with 12 RBIs and has a pair of saves, and senior Max Rubins is hitting .378 while carrying a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
While they all earned all-league recognition last year, a new crop of players is looking to fuel another MVL championship run as well.
That includes junior Davis Ketterer, who is 3-0 in five starts and second in the MVL with an ERA of 0.33, sophomore Tate Richardson, who is 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA, and sophomore Jackson Schilling, who is batting .424 with 12 RBIs.
“We’ve had some new guys step up from last year,” Dues said, including Paxton Dwanger and Russ Stratman as well.
Butler entered the weekend leading the MVL in batting average (.392) and stolen bases (55), and Dues said that is no accident.
“We spend a lot of time on both of those throughout the winter, obviously, and during the season,” Dues said.
There is an art to running the bases, and the Butler coaching staff leaves nothing to chance.
“It has to be taught, right? And it has to be practiced correctly, and they gotta obviously come through with it during game time, so there’s a lot goes to it,” Dues said.
As for pitching, the Aviators are also No. 1 in team ERA (2.03) with players young and old contributing in the first half of the season.
“They obviously have pretty good stuff, and they know how to pitch,” Dues said. “They know how to locate, know how to change speeds, and they know how to hold runners and field their position.”
He also praised his pitchers’ mental toughness.
“They handle adversity well. They bounce back, so I think all those together, you have created a winning combination,” Dues said.
But what about defense?
You guessed it — Butler is No. 1 in the league in fielding percentage, too.
Add it all up, and there is reason for optimism in Vandalia, but that is pretty typical under Dues, a Coldwater grad who became the head coach in 1995.
The Aviators won their 11th district title under Dues last season before bowing out of the Division I tournament with a 4-1 loss to Cincinnati Moeller in the regional semifinals.
With the OHSAA decision to expand to seven divisions this season, they will not be running into the Crusaders again this spring.
That’s because the Aviators are in Division III with other teams closer to their size, but Dues said that isn’t something he is thinking about at this point.
“It really doesn’t impact anything we do. We’re in the same league. The Division III thing will happen at the end of the year with the tournament, so it really hasn’t changed anything we do,” Dues said. “The way we look at it, there’s really, really good teams in Division III, so any division, I think you go out and you’re going to have to play really good baseball to advance.”
That includes Tippecanoe.
The Red Devils were also undefeated entering the weekend, and they showed up three spots behind the No. 1 Aviators in the Division III Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association poll released last week.
“I think you’re always seeing what everybody else is doing,” Dues said. “I just think that’s human nature, but our No. 1 priority is us. Continue to grow as the season goes because we’d like to be playing our best baseball the last part of the season.”
About half the regular season slate remains, including games against Tippecanoe on May 7 and May 9.
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