The Lady Knights took on defending 4A State Champions Butler on Friday evening, hosting the Bulldogs in a Southwestern 4A Conference match-up.

Butler left AK victorious, but this game was nothing like AK's first visit with the Bulldogs. The Knights showed great promise going into the remainder of the season and looking towards the Conference Tournament in early May.

The Bulldogs jumped on top early in the contest scoring 3 runs in the first on two hits and an error. Continuing to build on their lead, the Bulldogs added 1 in the second, 1 in the fourth and 3 more in the fifth. While the Bulldogs were producing runs at the plate, University of Tennessee signee Ashton Ward was taking it to the Knight hitters on the mound.

The Knights began to get around on Ward in the third, putting the ball in play more and more each inning. Forcing Butler's defense to work for their outs, rather than ride the coattails of Ward.

In the bottom of the 7th, with the score 8-0, the Knights #2 hitter, Kylie Russo reached on a short fly ball to left field. Tipped by the shortstop, but unable to handle it, Russo was safe at first. Freshman catcher Mykaela Williams then battled Ward at the plate. Williams would eventually reach first on walk. Clean up hitter, Kalie Lang stepped to the plate with no outs and two runners on. Lang, with a 1-2 count on her, took the next pitch deep from Ward, clearing the center field fence and giving AK 3 runs. Ward would shut down the next three batters, with 2 strike outs and infield grounder before ending AK's hopes of defeating the Bulldogs.

On the mound, Lang took the loss, striking out 9, while walking 2 and giving up 8 hits on the day. The Knights had 6 errors on the day and sacrificed 5 unearned runs.

With the loss, the Knights fall to 7-6 on the year, 5-4 in SW4A Conference play. The Knights return to action Tuesday, April 17th, for a 5:00 PM match up at East Meck.