Liolios Breaks Home Run Record, ‘Cats Power past Butler 11-7

Tuesday, April 29

Evanston, Ill.

3:30 p.m. CT

Northwestern

20-22

Butler

14-30

Butler

Northwestern

Photo by: Mary Grace Grabill/Northwestern Athletics

Liolios Breaks Home Run Record, ‘Cats Power past Butler 11-7

4/29/2025 8:11:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Highlights Photo Gallery

EVANSTON, Ill. – With his 16th home run of the 2025 campaign, DH Trent Liolios broke the Northwestern single-season home run record as Northwestern defeated Butler 11-7 on Tuesday afternoon at Miller Park.

Northwestern (20-22, 12-9 Big Ten) jumped on the Bulldogs early, putting up three runs in the first. The Wildcats drew first blood on 3B Owen McElfatrick's single to center field, scoring 2B Jacob Hand. CF Jack Lausch doubled the lead with a double down the right-field line, plating SS Ryan Kucherak. C Bennett Markinson brough McElfatrick home with an RBI groundout to stretch the NU advantage to 3-0.

1B Tyler Ganus's third home run of the season, a solo shot, extended the Wildcat lead to four in the bottom of the second.

The Wildcat offense stayed hot in the bottom of the third, with Kucherak and McElfatrick slugging back-to-back solo home runs to stretch the lead to six. Later in the inning, Lausch reached on a walk, stole second, and came around to score on an RBI single by Tyler Ganus to make it 7-0.

The 'Cats extended the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a pair of runs. McElfatrick logged a bases-loaded walk, scoring Hand and Lausch scored Freeman on a sacrifice fly to stretch the lead to nine.

Liolios broke the single-season record with a two-run blast in the bottom of the fifth, scoring Ganus and extending the Wildcat lead to 11 in the bottom of the fifth.

Butler (14-30, 3-9 BIG EAST) plated six runs on four hits in the sixth and added one run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

LHP Blake MacMillan allowed just one hit in 3.0 shutout innings, fanning three and walking two. RHP Ethan Borggren (2-0) is credited with the win in 1.1 scoreless innings of work, surrendering two hits. RHP Jack Grunkemeyer earned his second-career save, allowing one run in 3.2 innings on four hits, one walk, and one hit batsman, striking out three.

Game Notes

The Wildcats scored double-digit runs for the ninth time this season, its most since 2022 (15).
NU has scored double-digit runs in consecutive games for the second time this season (March 29, 30 at Maryland).
- Northwestern put up three runs in the first, its most runs in the first inning since March 30 at Maryland (three).
SS Ryan Kucherak's homer marked his 13th of the season, fifth-most in program history and eighth-most in the Big Ten.
- Kucherak and Liolios are the first Wildcat teammates to homer 13+ times in a single-season.
- Kucherak has homered in four of his last five games and recorded an RBI in eight of his last nine games.
3B Owen McElfatrick went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, three RBI and two runs.
- McElfatrick notched his team-high 14th multi-hit game of the season.

The Wildcats will resume Big Ten play on Friday with a three-game series at Purdue. First pitch on Friday is set for 5 p.m. CT. Saturday's game is slated for 1 p.m. CT. Sunday's series finale is scheduled for 12 p.m. CT.