Despite jumping out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, the Lorain County Ironmen dropped their third-straight game, falling 4-3 to the Butler BlueSox in Pennsylvania on Thursday night.

The night started promising for the Ironmen as they scored three runs in the top of the first inning. Austin Ingraham (St. Bonaventure) hit a two-run triple to score Westlake’s Matt McAllester (Ashland University), who started the inning with a walk and stole second base, and Stephen Hagen (Texas Tech), who was hit-by-pitch. Ingraham then scored on Billy Urban’s (St. Bonaventure) RBI single.

Kenny Bechaud (Missouri) and Kurt Roeder (Rippon) then combined to shut down the Ironmen for the rest of the game.

River McWilliams (Buffalo) took the loss to drop his record to 1-1. McWilliams came in to relieve Kris Hall (Cleveland State) who went 3 1/3 innings, striking out 3 and allowing three runs, one earned. McWilliams gave way to Avon’s Phil Brua (Oberlin), who pitched one inning.

The Ironmen return home to the Pipe Yard on Friday night to take on the BlueSox at 7:05 p.m. with fireworks to follow.

swalker@MorningJournal.com