Scott Butler hasn’t always enjoyed the process, but he can’t argue with the results.

Monday night in Wright City, the Warrenton Post 122 AAA manager watched starting pitcher Austin Nicolas walk four New Haven batters across six innings.

In four of those innings, New Haven threatened to score with at least two runners on base.

But, like so many of the left-hander’s appearances this summer, he worked out of the jams and exited the game without giving up a run.

He improved his earned-run average to 1.86 in 23 innings.

“For him being the No. 2 pitcher, he’s not showing it,” Butler said. “His ERA is around one, and that’s huge. I told him he walks a few too many guys, and I guess you can call him effectively wild. But he keeps coming out here and tossing zeros, so you can’t argue with that.”

Nicolas’ strikeout-to-walk ratio is a pedestrian one-to-one, but he has been able to pitch out of sticky situations during four of his five appearances this season.

“He stays on top of the ball early in games, which helps,” Butler said. “He might get a little tired and not do that as much later in the game, but I think he just dials in when he has runners on base.”

Nicolas worked around a pair of first-inning singles Monday night to escape unscathed, and his offense responded with an early barrage of runs.

“He’s gotten runners on a lot,” Butler said. “His strikeout-to-walk ratio is one-to-one, but all he does is toss zeros on the scoreboard. He keeps us in ballgames. He hasn’t had a bad game for us yet because I just ask him to go six innings and we’ll have our bullpen take care of the rest.”

Chris Garrett relieved Nicolas in the seventh, working around a single to keep New Haven scoreless.

Hunter Capstick tossed a perfect frame in the eighth, and James Dotson pitched around two errors in the ninth to push the Seniors closer to a Ninth District playoff appearance.

Butler said he wasn’t surprised by his bullpen’s late-innings shutout.

He hopes Nicolas will continue to pitch like an ace, as well.