Region VI Winner's Bracket Preview: #3 Butler vs #2 Johnson County

Region VI Winner's Bracket

2-seed Johnson County vs 3-seed Butler

Date: May 18th

Time: 4:00 PM

Location: Eck Stadium

Watch Live: butlergrizzlies.com/watchlive

Massey Ratings Game Prediction: Johnson 6-4

Massey Ratings Chance to Win: Johnson 65%, Butler 35%

OPENING NOTES

• The 3rd seeded Butler Grizzlies and the 2nd seeded Johnson County Cavaliers will meet in the winner's bracket of the Region VI Playoffs 
• The Region VI Tournament is double elimination, meaning that the loser of this game will fall into the loser's bracket, rather than being eliminated
• The winner of this game will play in the winner's bracket semi-final on Friday at 4PM, while the loser will play Friday at 10AM
• The Grizzlies finished second in the Jayhawk West and the Cavaliers finished as KJCCC East Champions
• The Grizzlies advanced to this game after defeating Fort Scott 3-2 on Thursday
• Johnson County defeated Seward County 7-1 on Thursday afternoon
• Butler Baseball has won at least 35 games in five straight seasons
• The Grizzlies have won eight of their last ten games
• This is the first time the Grizzlies have advanced into the winner's bracket of Region VI Playoffs since 2015
• The Grizzlies did not appear in any NJCAA Poll this season, while Johnson County finished ranked #2 in the final poll
• Butler is 4-7 against ranked opponents this year
• Butler's strength of schedule (SOS) is ranked 118th by Massey Ratings, Johnson's SOS is 127th
• Against common opponents, Butler is 20-7 and Johnson is 30-6. Those teams being Cowley, Neosho, Coffeyville, Highland, Cloud, Colby, and Crowder, Allen, and Fort Scott

Last action for the Grizzlies 

Wednesday, May 17th | Region VI Second Round | Ft. Scott 2, Butler 3 

• The Butler Baseball team defeated the normally high-scoring Fort Scott Greyhounds in a defensive battle 3-2
• Izack Tiger through a complete nine-innings, allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out 15 batters
• Brock Toothaker was the only Grizzly with more than one hit, going 2-3 with an RBI, and he drew a walk
• The Grizzlies managed to draw eight walks in the game, while Tiger issued zero walks
• The Grizzlies enter the game against #2 Johnson County with a record of 39-21 overall

THE OPPONENT

• The 2nd seed overall and the KJCCC East Champions, the Johnson County Cavaliers enter with a record of 51-7 overall and they finished 29-3 in conference play
• Johnson County has won 16 straight games
• The Cavaliers 51 wins this year, is a program record, breaking the previous record of 50 set back in the 2014 season
• The Cavaliers advanced to this game by sweeping Colby in the first round and then won the aforementioned second round game against Seward
• Johnson County has a Massey Ratings RPI ranking of 5th, up three spots from last week
  • This is the highest ranking of any team in the KJCCC with the next closest team being Barton who is 17th
• The Cavaliers are 3-0 in neutral site games this year
• Johnson leads the KJCCC in batting average at 0.369
• Of the all players in the KJCCC Johnson County has two players ranked in the top-5 for batting average
  • Those players being Ryan Callahan (0.433) and Dagen Brewer (0.449)
• Johnson starter Luc Fladda is second in the conference in ERA at 2.61 and has a perfect 10-0 record
• Johnson has the 20th ranked offense and 20th ranked defense in NJCAA Division I
• As a team, Johnson County has the lowest ERA in the KJCCC at 3.50

RECENT WINNING

• The Grizzlies have won 15 of their last 18 games and have held opponents to four or fewer runs in 12 of those 18 games

MOST RECENT MEETINGS

• Butler is 3-2 against Johnson County since 2012 with all of those meetings in the playoffs
  • The most recent meeting came in 2021 sub-regional when Butler eliminated region top seed Johnson 14-9
  • In 2017, Johnson won a Region VI First Round matchup against Butler 2-1
  • In 2015, Butler defeated Johnson 10-0 in the loser's bracket final

JUST KICKEN' IT

• Starter Caden Kickhaefer leads the KJCCC with an ERA of 2.41 this season
• Kickhaefer is fourth in innings pitched in the KJCCC with 74.1
• Kick is also tied for the fewest home runs allowed among pitchers in the Jayhawk Conference with four

HUDDY HOMERS

• Justin Hudson leads the Grizzlies in home runs this season with 16 and he's hit four homers over his last seven games played

IN DYER NEED

• After missing nine games last month due to injury, Hayden Dyer has returned to the lineup and had a big impact on the Grizzly batting order. Since his return, he's batting 0.408 (20-49), with 21 RBIs, and he's hit seven home runs, while drawing ten walks

TIGER KING

• Grizzly ace Izack Tiger is the all-time program leader for strikeouts in a career with 243. He has a career K/9 of 11.39 and a K/9 this year of 12.86 which ranks 16th in the NJCAA and is the second highest mark in the Jayhawk Conference

OTHER KJCCC SECOND ROUND MATCHUPS:

#7 Seward vs #2 Johnson (1PM)

#8 KCK vs #1 Barton (4PM)

#5 Cloud vs #4 Cowley (7PM)

TEAM LEADERS AS OF 5/17:

HITTING

Batting Average: Hayden Dyer: 0.388

RBIs: Hayden Dyer: 64

Hits: Hayden Dyer: 71

Runs Scored: Josh Holmes: 50

Doubles: Justin Hudson: 18

Triples: Five players tied: 1

Home Runs: Justin Hudson: 16

Walks Drawn: Brock Kuehler: 38

PITCHING

Innings Pitched: Izack Tiger: 84.2

Wins: Tied: Caden Kickhaefer and Izack Tiger: 10

Saves: Blake Werry: 7

Strikeouts: Izack Tiger: 121

ERA: Caden Kickhaefer: 2.41

Fewest BBs Issued (Min 40 IP): Caden Kickhaefer: 22

Complete Games: Izack Tiger: 6

LOOKING AHEAD

As mentioned, a win means the Grizzlies will play in the winner's bracket semi-final Friday at 4PM, while a loss will send them to the loser's bracket where they would play Friday at 10AM in an elimination game.