Sophomore Alvaro Hernandez finished off an impressive start to the spring season with a sixth place finish at the Butler Spring Break tournament.

Hernandez followed up his first round score of 73 with a 75 on Thursday to finish with an overall total of 148. In a highly competitive field, Hernandez finished just three strokes behind the leader and ended up in a tie for sixth.

Hard work over the break from the fall season paid off in the first tournament back for Hernandez.

“I’ve put a lot of work in during the off-season and I’m glad that it looks like it starts to pay off,” Hernandez said.

Eastern finished seventh in the team standings with a two round total of 661. Romeo Perez moved up one spot after shooting an 81 on Thursday and finished in 35 with a total of 165. Kevin Altenberger and Alex Gowin finished in 44 and 45 with scores of 174 and 176. Altenberger improved his round score by 10 strokes on day two.

Hernandez said the course was in good condition for golf on Wednesday and Thursday.

“It was a little bit windier yesterday than today, but we can’t complain about anything with the conditions that we had,” Hernandez said.

Kyle Gaines from Detroit was the first place finisher with a round of 74 to move him from second to first in day two. Butler’s Patrick Allgeier shot an impressive second round total of 70 to move up eight spots to finish in a tie for second with Evansville’s Tyler Gray.

RJ Batolomucci from High Point was the leader after day one, but a second round score of 77 dropped him to a tie for fourth with Butler’s Hunter Byram. Albany State’s Tyler Hanson tied for six with Hernandez and a three way tie for eighth place between Albany State’s Davis Vener, Detroit’s Spencer Lendzion and Evansville’s Matthew Ladd rounded out the top 10.

Butler moved up an impressive four spots in the second round to win the Invitational. After shooting a 309 in round one, Butler shot a team score of 287 to finish with a total of 596. Evansville came in second with a total of 602. Albany State and Detroit finished tied for third with a two round total of 604.

Southern Indiana finished six with 633, followed by Eastern (661), Chicago State (684) and Kentucky State (694).

Eastern will be back in action on March 20-21 for the Missouri State Spring Tournament.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or mmshanahan@eiu.edu