NEW YORK (Interstat) — Ian Mowad and three relievers combined to hold Butler’s offense in check as Saint John’s Red Storm defeated the Butler Bulldogs 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium in a Big East series finale.

Mowad, making his fourth appearance of the season, allowed three hits over 3⅔ scoreless innings. He struck out two and did not issue a walk. The Red Storm bullpen followed with 5⅓ innings of one-run ball, with Nick Romer, Tommy Conley and Evan Hoeckele each contributing. Conley struck out three in 1⅔ innings, Romer fanned one in 1⅔ and Hoeckele allowed one earned run on three hits with four strikeouts over two innings.

Butler starter Brock Buckley took the loss despite a strong outing. Buckley worked seven innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out five. He departed with Saint John’s leading 2-1 after the Red Storm broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh.

The game remained scoreless through three innings as both starters worked efficiently. Butler’s first threat came in the fourth when Gavin Gilmore singled and Charlie Schebler followed with a base hit. But reliever Tommy Conley entered and struck out David Ayers to end the inning.

Saint John’s got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Shaun McMillan doubled to left field and scored on Adam Agresti’s single to left, tying the game at 1-1.

Butler answered in the top of the fifth. Will White walked, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Logan Crock, but was left stranded when Danny Gavin struck out.

The score remained 1-1 until the seventh. With one out, Ayden Frey was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a groundout and scored on Jon LeGrande’s single to left field. LeGrande, who finished 2-for-4, drove in the go-ahead run and put Saint John’s ahead 2-1.

The Red Storm added two insurance runs in the eighth against Butler reliever Ian Regal. Agresti singled, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Ian Bernardini’s single to right center. Rob Mansour then singled, and Lewis Rodriguez delivered an RBI single to make it 4-1.

Butler mounted a final rally in the ninth. Gilmore singled, Schebler doubled to left center to drive in Gilmore, and Logan Baker singled to put runners at the corners. But Hoeckele struck out David Ayers and Will White, then fanned Alex Christie to end the game.

Mansour led Saint John’s with three hits in four at-bats. LeGrande, Agresti and McMillan each had two hits. Schebler finished 2-for-4 with an RBI for Butler.

Saint John’s won the series two games to one after dropping the opener 7-3 on Thursday and rebounding with a 7-2 victory Friday. The Red Storm improved to 30-24 overall. Butler fell to 18-33.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a final score of Saint John’s 6, Butler 5, and its ELO system gave Saint John’s a 78.30 percent probability to win.