There’s been some pretty intense baseball being played at the Pipe Yard as of late.

For the third-straight game, the Ironmen pulled off some late-inning magic to win their third-straight game, defeating the Butler Blue Sox, 5-3 on Wednesday night.

With the win, the Ironmen improved to 6-6 and evened the season series with the Blue Sox at three games apiece.

The seventh inning proved magical for the Ironmen, scoring three runs off relief pitcher Kurt Roeder to erase a 3-2 deficit and give them a 5-3 lead. James DiBiasio led off with a walk, before Matt McAllester reached on a bunt single, sending DiBiasio to second. Billy Urban then doubled down the left field line to score DiBiasio and McAllester, who slid around the tag to grab a 4-3 lead.

"We have tons of good players, anyone can make plays at any given time," Urban said. "I happen to get a hit there and they scored, and (McAllester) had a great slide. Everybody is coming together. We have a chance to do something special. A lot of great guys and a lot of great players. Tonight we came out lucky."

Stephen Hagan then walked before J.T. Feldkamp sent a grounder to Blue Sox second baseman Jonathan Craycraft that went through his legs to score Urban with an insurance run, putting the Ironmen up 5-3.

"We’re starting to swing the bats a little better," Ironmen coach Eric Cormell said. "We’re taking some of the pressure off our pitchers. Urban comes up with a big hit, smokes the ball down the left field line. Me being an aggressive third base coach, I’m going to send that guy 99 percent of the time and he was able to get in there.

Especially in a wood-bat game, where hits are a commodity, they are few and far between, you take advantage of that and put pressure on the defense. I’m an ex-outfielder. It’s very tough for a guy to get the ball in and get the guy out."

Hagan came through on a 3-2 pitch in the first inning, delivering an RBI single to score Melendez, who was hit-by-pitch and stole second to give the Ironmen an early lead, 1-0.Butler answered back and tied the game at one when Max Vogel hit into a 1-6-3 double play that scored John Sulzicki, who led the second inning off with a triple. His triple was in the gap in left center and was close to clearing the fence for a home run.

Butler added a pair of runs in the fourth inning when Vogel and Craycraft each delivered clutch RBI singles to score Sulzicki and Adam Jury, who both drew two-out walks to give the Blue Sox a 3-1 lead.The RBI single by Jury, which scored Craycraft, was a bit controversial as Melendez’s throw from right field to Feldkamp appeared to get Craycraft, but the umpire called him safe.

The Ironmen blew a chance in the bottom of the fourth inning as Feldkamp (single) and Nick Hamilton (double) led off with hits. After a walk to Nate Antone, the bases were loaded with no outs for Will Hodges, who was acquired on Tuesday. Hodges struck out before DiBiasio’s groundout scored Feldkamp to cut the deficit to one. Hamilton (third) and Antone (second) were then left stranded as Melendez looked at a called third strike to end the inning and the threat.

Ironmen starting pitcher Kris Hall pitched strong, going six innings with six strikeouts, including four in a row at one point. He allowed three runs on four hits. River McWilliams came on to pitch the seventh, and gets credit for the win to improve to 2-1. He went 1 1/3 before giving way to Avon native Phil Brua (Oberlin College), who got the next two guys, leaving Austin Wulf and Colby Roberts stranded on second and third. Brua pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his second save of the season.

"In that situation, I gotta come in and look to either get the strikeout or get somebody to hit the ball on the ground," Brua said. "I come in with a mindset, locate my fastball and try to keep it at the knees."It’s hard. I have to pump myself up, because I’m basically down there (bullpen) by myself. It’s what I love to do. I like the pressure. I like having the weight of the game on my shoulders and come in do what I do and try to get the win."